Felling of roadside trees

A good number of mature Mahogany and Rain trees along the highways linking Jhenidah to Chuadanga and Jessore are reportedly being indiscriminately felled by loggers. Flouting the rules, these valuable timber trees have allegedly been sold by the Ziila parishad administrator at nominal prices depriving the public purse, on the one hand, and to the detriment of the environment, on the other.

What appears from this disconcerting report from the southwestern part of the country is that the public official concerned did neither care to invite a tender, nor get the approval of the divisional level committee headed by the divisional forest officer for the purpose. Clearly, this is an instance of gross irregularity warranting due notice of and action from the higher level of the government.

Apart from disregard for the rules, this is also a case of reckless indifference to the danger of denudation that these highways would be exposed to once their green top cover is lost. And where is the guarantee that along with mature trees, the loggers in cahoots with a section of public officials are also not decimating roadside trees which are yet to mature? The present report does mention cutting down of young trees along with mature ones.

The government should look into the incident and hold the errant public officials to account.