Forest official suspended, 11 others transferred

Eleven other forest officials and staff have been transferred from the station in Shatkhira district.

Divisional Forest Officer (DPO) Badrul Alam Bhuiya took the action on February 29 after a probe, official sources said.

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The transferred people are assistant station officers Khalilur Rahman and Khondakar Wahiduzzaman; forest guards Rashedul Islam, Kobayed Ali, Hafizur Rahman, Champak Das, Maniruzzaman, Abdul Quddus, Ruhul Quddus; and boat drivers Subash Chandra Majumdar and Mujibar Rahman.

The forest department has filed a case against three persons --Rashedul Gazi, Ebadul Gazi and Moktar Gazi of Bhetkhali in Shyamnagar upazila -- for felling the trees for shrimp cultivation.

They took away several hundred Geoa, Kewra and Hetal trees from Compartment No 47 in Kaikhali near Golkhali village in Shyamnagar upazila in January, forest official Kazi Karim said quoting from the probe report.

The probe was done by forest officials Nurul Amin and Kazi Nurul Karim, Karim said.

During a recent visit to the area some local people told this correspondent that some influential groups had been eyeing the Suandarbans for long to grab land for shrimp cultivation.

The Kaikhali Forest Station covers 1,51,351 acres of land. Human habitation has been separated from the Sundarbans by building an embankment.

The trees from the five-acre area were felled within two weeks from the last week of January in connivance with a section of corrupt forest officials, they alleged.

When contacted, Rashidul Gazi and Moktar Guzi said they cut the trees as tigers from bushes there often come to nearby shrimp farms, threatening life of security guards. They said their intention was not to grab the Sundarbans land.