Stripping Rangamati forests bare

A rising tide of illegal logging is stripping the Rangamati forests of their resources as the administration slumbers.

Fresh-cut teaks from Reankhyong, Alykhong Forowa, Shukkurchari, Arachari and Karnaphuli forest ranges under Chittagong Forest Department now flood Rajsthali log market in the district, despite a ban on felling of trees is in force.

Wheeler-dealer wood traders in connivance with mammonish forest officials are wiping out the forest, locals say.

Forest guards from the Kaptai Pulp Wood Range, abetted by nouveau riche traders from Chittagong, are engaged in the destruction, they alleged.

Meanwhile, scenes of high heaps of logs by roadsides and trucks hauling those out of Rangamati town dominated the townscape.

But the army, Bangladesh Rifles, police and other departments concerned seem to be indifferent to illegal cutting of trees, locals allege.

The government imposed a ban on cutting all sorts of trees from the natural forest in 1986. The embargo was later extended till 2005 under the Forest Resources Preservation Plan of 1997 that envisages sustainable forests for the posterity.

But trees on 5,000 acres of Barkal Reserve Forest and on hundreds of acres in Reankhyong and Alikhyong ranges disappeared in the recent past.

Unauthorised woodcutters also hauled all the teak, Garzan, Mahogany, Gamari trees out of the Kasalong Reserve Forest in a frenzy of theft over the years, making a mockery of the preservation plan.

The forest department, however, dismissed the charge of its involvement in the theft, saying efforts to save the forest were hobbled by poor manpower and inadequate logistic support.

"We are seriously understaffed and under-equipped," said Salahuddin Ahmed, conservator of forest for Rangamati region.

"Our staff strength stands at 1,200 against 2,400 people required to protect the forest in the entire Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region.

"The loggers are equipped with sophisticated modern weapons and they easily outgun our guards, who carry anachronistic 303 rifles," he said.

"How can we protect the vast forests, especially its remote parts, in such a situation?" he asked.

Local people, however, say loggers take the cover of 'jote permit' to ferry the logs to facilities out of the district, also with the help of forest officials.

'Jote permits' are given to private planters by the government under which they grow trees on leased out lands and cut those when they are matured.

Loggers usually wield the permit to carry the logs out even from places where no 'jote land' ever existed.

This year 1,00,000 cubic feet of logs are expected to be extracted from the Rangamati forest region under the permit, a forest official said.

The forestlands are disappearing at a time when the government has no greening plan for the region.

"We submitted a 5,000 acres afforestation plan, but it was not approved," Salahuddin said.

Meanwhile, political leaders, environmentalists and the civil society have expressed serious concern over destruction of the forest.

"The authorities concerned should take immediate steps to save the forests," said Moni Swapan Dewan, deputy minister for the CHT Affairs.

"Otherwise, the whole nation will have to pay very dearly."

Rupayan Dewan, a frontline leader of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity, said it was high time to save the forests and halt the march of environmental degradation.