Why build roads through a reserved forest?

A recent report on road construction through the Baitarani Reserved Forest in Chattogram’s Satkania upazila is deeply unsettling. The two roads are being built under the Local Government Engineering Department’s (LGED) IRIDP-3 project costing Tk 1.5 crore. If open to use, they would increase human movement in the forest, raising the risk of land encroachment, illegal tree felling, smuggling of forest resources, and perhaps most alarmingly, endangering the wildlife that depends on this habitat. The Forest Department’s intervention has temporarily suspended the construction work. However, we don’t understand why a project like this was approved in the first place. The work, which began around eight months ago and has been suspended for the past three months, has already resulted in several hillocks being cut, increasing the risk of landslides during the monsoon.

The LGED authorities cite the involvement of a local MP in expediting road work to better address the needs of the local population. However, the area reportedly has only a handful of houses, which raises the question as to whose interests the project is intended to serve. As the roads are being justified in the name of public interest, we urge the authorities to clearly explain how many people would stand to benefit from the construction, and why the alternative routes cannot meet the existing demand. Given that our forests are often treated as expendable for extractive projects despite protective laws, the authorities must exercise greater caution. We have observed this trend before. In Chattogram’s Tulatoli, for instance, we saw as many as 5,000 trees illegally felled in a five-acre mangrove forest to make room for a ship-breaking yard, without even considering the impact of removing these life-saving trees.

We routinely witness the normalisation of forest encroachments facilitated by influential locals, and sometimes even government projects contribute to the erosion of forest diversity. Our decreasing forestland has also contributed to rising human-wildlife conflict in many parts of the country. Therefore, any project that may compromise the integrity of forest ecosystems must be vetted with the utmost care, as forests serve as natural buffers against environmental hazards and extreme weather events, to which Bangladesh is becoming increasingly vulnerable.

We understand the importance of critical infrastructure in remote areas as we often see them bearing the brunt of insufficient transportation, education and healthcare services. However, a narrow view of development does more harm than good. We, therefore, urge the relevant authorities to re-evaluate the need for roads through the Baitarani Reserved Forest and to explore alternatives.