Unabated looting of coastal forests

Freestyle pilferage... forest bandits loading pilfered trees on a trawler at Katra cost in Patuakhali. PHOTO: STAR

Local people alleged that the gangs are stealing valuable timber trees from forests in coastal areas of Kalapara and Galachipa upazilas in connivance with a section of Forest Department staff and low enforcers.

Scores of valuable trees like Sundary, Kewra, Garan and Karai are taken away from from forests in Fatrar Bank, Char Gongamoti Sonr Char, Nishan Baria and Kachop Khali lake every night. These are loaded in trawlers and sent to the different areas including Dhaka and Chittagong.

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Parts of these are also sold at nearby saw mills. Forest officials some times recover stolen timber and arrest people, but this is only an eyewash, they alleged.

"We recovered about 500 cft Sundary timber from three trawlers on the Kalaguchia river on February 17 this year and arrested 15 people", one official said.

Alongside the pilferage, threes are also dying in large scale. Forest officials and local people said, thousands of timber trees died from unknown diseases in Char Gongamoti, Kuakata, Khayura, Lambur Char and Kawer Char in Kalapara upazila in the last several years.

Death of trees was noticed about six years back. Trees are dying in large scalenow, local plople said.

Some forest officials suspect that trees are dying as their roots cannot suck sweet water because of deposit two to three feet sand in the beach, carried by tidal wave.

Forest officials said excessive deposit of sand is harmful for man grove forest. The forest can be saved if the sand layer is removed, but it is costly.

But other officials differ with the view. There could be other reasons they said but could not specify.

This correspondent during a visit to Kuakata sea beach last week saw hundreds of dead trees.

Abdul Mannan 40, a farmer at Char Gougamoti said the withering process starts four to five mouths after their roots are covered with sand.