Rangamati Correspondent :
Due to indifference in law enforcement and lack of proper monitoring, the deforestation of valuable trees in the forests around the Kaptai Range, a reserve under the Rangamati South Forest Division, is not stopping. It is alleged that with the cooperation of a class of self-interested employees of the Forest Department and with the direct support of local influential leaders, the Kaptai Range of Rangamati, the country’s second largest reserve forest, is being continuously destroyed by cutting down trees and shrubs that are prohibited for sale under the green belt. It is known that at least 2 sawmills are operating again next to the dilapidated Zakir Hossain Sawmill after independence within this reserve forest. A local influential timber smuggling syndicate is stealing trees from the forest and selling them to sawmills and smuggling them to various places by river and road. This gang is constantly stealing trees and setting up sawmills inside the reserved forests, which is turning the reserved forests of the mountains into wastelands.
Local residents and informed people said that with the increase in the water level of Kaptai Lake, the timber smuggling syndicate became more reckless and cut down the valuable trees of the reserve forest in a short time with the help of electric saws and threw them into the lake water. Later, they were dragged and moved to another place using special arrangements. Then, with the connivance of some staff of the forest department, the timber traders marketed the trees in the dark of night. Many eyewitnesses, environmentalists and civil society members said that a class of disgruntled employees of the forest department are directly involved in this case. After investigation, it was learned that hundreds of cubic feet of wood are cut in these sawmills every night with the direct and indirect cooperation of local influential leaders inside the reserved forests under the Kaptai range. Besides, local sources have also informed that a business worth lakhs of taka is being carried out there every day.
When asked about the matter, Kaptai Kaptai Range Officer Md. Omar Faruk Swadhin, under the jurisdiction of the Chittagong Hill Tracts South Forest Division, said, “What happened in the past in my absence is not my business, but I have been working to stop deforestation in the Kaptai Range for the past two months, and I hope that all the hills under the Kaptai Range will be transformed into green pastures. In this regard, all concerned are working sincerely under the guidance of the DFO of the South Forest Division. In the meantime, I have started working by taking various steps in the responsibility of deforestation in Kaptai.”
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