The Department of Forest is losing control on a vast tract of greens in Tangail as big timber market and brickfields thrive largely on illegally felled trees.
Almost half of the 7,225-acre reserve forest in Mirzapur upazila has disappeared in the last four decades as the forest department and the district administration turned a blind eye to it.
The district administration and forest officials are now playing a blame game for a mushroom growth of brick kilns within the reserve forest.
Encroachment on the forestland, years of neglect in preserving the forest and allowing a massive wholesale timber market and a large number of brickfields to sprout up have caused wholesale deforestation, locals say.
Insiders at the forest department admit that illegal grabbers have encroached on around 3,300 acres of forestland in Mirzapur.
They say outsiders and local influential people have grabbed the forestland, felled trees and set up different fruit and vegetable orchards over the years. The grabbers have even built houses and makeshift structures there to strengthen their false claim of the encroached land.
The foresters claim they could not take prompt action due to shortage of workforce and logistics. They say the influential individuals having political backup have grabbed the forestland by using forged documents.
“We are virtually helpless as hundreds of forest related cases are pending in the different courts,” says an official asking not to be identified.
But sale of gajari, stolen from the Mirzapur reserve forest, continues every day at Hatubhanga wholesale timber market, strategically located just 100 metres off from the forest in Asgana union.
Moreover, over a dozen brickfields were allowed to be set up only within 100-200 metres of the forest in the same area.
Timber trader Ali Akbar of Polashtoli village told The Daily Star stolen logs could be purchased at Hatubhanga wholesale timber market in absence of monitoring.
People in the neighbourhood allege stolen timber from the reserve forest is also used to burn bricks at 34 brick kilns, most of which are situated besides the Bongshai and Louhajang rivers.
Forest officials in Mirzapur however deny sale of illegal logs at Hatubhanga timber market.
Range Officer Abdul Mazid of Banshtoli Forest Range claims they keep a vigil on the timber market against trading of stolen timber.
On concentration of so many brick kilns near the reserve forest, the range officer said, “The forest department did not give permission to set up the brickfields there. They managed permission from the Deputy Commissioner’s Office.”
Asked, Deputy Commissioner of Tangail Maksudur Rahman Patwari disputed the allegation saying the brick kilns get his office’s permission only upon necessary clearance from the Directorate of Forest and Environment.
“After an investigation, necessary steps will be taken against those who are responsible for wholesale deforestation in Mirzapur,” the DC added without specifying any timeframe.
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