Prison in forestland: 2 govt agencies face off over land demarcation

The Department of Prison and the Forest Department are at odds over demarcation of forestland in Ukhiya upazila of Cox's Bazar. 

The land ministry allotted 160 acres of land, which is part of a protected forest in Ukhiya's Paglirbil, to the prison department to build a prison.

Prison authorities placed demarcation flags in the beginning of May, but Forest Department (FD) staffers removed those at the end of June. This prompted prison officials to write to the home ministry to take legal action against the FD officials.

The FD wrote a letter to the land ministry to cancel the lease citing laws, policies and High Court rulings to conserve forestland.

Preferring anonymity, a forest official said as per a Cabinet Division circular issued in 2015, any organisation building any structures that fall within forest area should have clearance from the FD, but the prison authorities could not come up with any such document for the land in question.

The official said the State Acquisition and Tenancy Act-1950, National Forest Policy-1995, Forest Act-1927 and the land use manual of the land ministry prevents any forestland from being leased out to any individual or organisation.

Md Shah Alam Khan, superintendent of Cox's Bazar district jail, told The Daily Star that in the face of obstruction from FD, they had to stop work there.

"We wrote to our high-ups about their obstruction. The security service division of home ministry already wrote letters to relevant authorities for legal action against the officials," he said.

Sarwar Alam, divisional forest officer of Cox's Bazar South Forest Division, told The Daily Star that they have no issues with the prison authority. All they ask is for them to go through proper procedure.

Shah Alam said the open prison is the first of its kind in the country. Inmates who have light sentences and those at the end of their sentences will be shifted there. There will be scope for fish farming, gardens and other handicraft for the inmates who will be allowed to visit their families.

FD officials said the forestland is part of plot 602 which was declared a protected forest through a gazette notification in 1935.

The land ministry memorandum issued in March 1995, and Section 29 of Forest Act-1927 states that no protected forestland should be leased out without permission from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

FD in a letter sent to the prison department in August asked them to obtain permission from the relevant ministry and stop the demarcating until permission was granted. The letter raised the concern that despite repeated requests, the prison authorities were still trying to place the demarcation flags.

The forest is home to dozens of plant species and the critically endangered Asian Elephant along with wild boars, reticulated pythons, leopard cats and the Asian Palm Civet, the letter said.

Asked, Amir Hossain Chowdhury, chief conservator of the Forest Department, told The Daily Star that the forestland is a protected forest according to a 1935 gazette notification and that there was no scope to hand over the forest.

"We wrote a letter to the land ministry to cancel the handover citing the existing laws and commitment to conserve forestland," he said.

Shah Alam Khan, Cox's Bazar jail superintendent, said the land is under the deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar. In light of the prison department's application, he granted the lease maintaining all procedures.

Asked whether they obtained any clearance from the FD as per the Cabinet Division circular, he said they did not need it as the land is khas land.

Asked whether the forestland was excluded from protected status before being leased out to the Department of Prison, Al Amin Parvej, additional deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar, told this paper that he did not know.

Moinul Islam, deputy secretary (khas land-01) of land ministry, said the ministry had not receives any letter from FD requesting cancellation of the lease.

"I can't comment right now on why the land was leased out. It happened before I assumed the post," he said.

Just a few months ago, 20 acres of forestland was handed over to Bangladesh Football Federation to build a training academy in Ramu upazila of Cox's Bazar.

Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, said the leasing is in clear violation of multiple High Court rulings that asked the government to refrain from leasing out forestland.

This is happening at a time when the government promised during COP-26 to conserve forestland by reducing deforestation by 2030, and as part of the sustainable development goals, promised to increase forestland by 25 percent by 2030.