Trees fall victim of road blockade

Roadside trees cut down by opposition activists in Rupdia area of Jessore. To snap communications, pickets put up barricades on roads and highways mostly with logs after felling trees, thus destroying greenery. Photo: STar

Cashing in on hartals and blockades, Jamaat-Shibir men in Jessore are felling hundreds of wayside trees to block roads and highways and selling them at night.
According to district council officers, more than 1,000 trees, worth several crores of taka, have been felled by opposition activists, mostly those of Jamaat and its student wing Shibir, since October.
The officials say they have so far recovered around 200 trees while the rest had been sold mainly by local Jamaat-Shibir men and a number of influential people.
Witnesses say the protesters start felling trees from the daybreak. The trading of the felled trees begins with the nightfall and the roads gets cleared overnight.
The longer a spell of blockade gets the more opportunity it opens for the opposition men to cut down the roadside trees since it takes little time to fell a tree with a chainsaw, the witnesses add.
The district council has filed 26 cases accusing 193 people in connection with felling 125 trees, worth around Tk 20 lakh, from October 27 to December 4.
Speaking anonymously, an official of the district council said Jamaat and Shibir had strongholds in some areas where they [officials] were unable to check such indiscriminate tree felling.
Reshma Sharmin, assistant superintendent of police (Town Circle), said law            enforcers had recovered around 200          felled trees from Jessore-Monirampur,    Jessore-Khulna and Jessore-Benapole roads on Friday.
According to forest department sources the trees recovered can fetch about Tk 1 crore. They said Jamaat-Shibir men had cut down around 500 trees in three days between December 10 and 13.
ASP Reshma said "The trees felled belonged to the Roads and Highways Department and the district council and we would take actions against the tree fellers if the offices file cases in this connection."
Witnesses say Jamaat-Shibir men are cutting down trees and massively damaging the environment in three places -- Rupdia-Bashundia area, Natunhat under the sadar upazila and in Monirampur.
The most affected roads are the Jessore-Khulna highway from Rupdia to Bashundia, Jessore-Benapole road from Laujani to Jhikargachha and different roads in Monirampur.
Trees were also felled ahead of or during hartals and blockades elsewhere in the district, say locals and witnesses.