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Bid for Ship-breaking Yard

Forest Dept to legally fight tree plunderers

Shahidul Islam and Nur Uddin Aiamgir, Chittagong
Forest authorities have decided to fight a legal battle against the plunderers of 15.000 Keura and Bain trees on a vast 40-acre forest belt near Sonaichhari coast in Sitakunda two days after razing of the greens.
A few influential people in a bid to develop ship-breaking yards hired workers, who felled the trees worth over Tk 1.1 crore with electric saws and machetes on Friday.
The move by the forest authorities came following press reports and subsequent enquiries by the ministry concerned.
Divisional Forest Officer of Chittagong Coastal Forest Division SM Khaleque Khan yesterday told The Daily Star, "We ll appear to the court to either withdraw its earlier order or stay it by dint of which they I the plunderers) managed to destroy the vast forest belt."
The mass destruction of invaluable green forest belt is feared to cause grave environmental disasters and put the coastal embankment on threat
Witnesses and sources say more than 500 workers started chopping down the Keura trees since Friday afternoon and completed the destruction by midnight.
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Later on Saturday, thousands of nearby villagers were seen collecting die chopped logs to use diosc as firewood or for other household work.
Locals say Md Nurun Nabi Bhuiyan, Md Adnan and Md Salahuddin alias Salaliuddin Haji hired the workers to raise five new ship-breaking yards there.
Environmentalists and locals expressed their resentment over inaction of the law-enforcement agencies and the forest department.
Police, however, defended their move saying they were helpless because of a High Court order given on July 1 following a writ filed by Md Nurun Nabi Bhuiyan and AKM Aminul Islam on behalf of the intending yard builders.
The sources say the court in the order asked the police and forest department not to obstruct the petitioners in "using" the aforesaid land to set up ship-breaking yards there.
Forest officials claim they submitted a written complaint to Sitakunda Police Station immediately after the workers started felling trees and requested the law enforcers to take action.
Hasan Miah, a forest officer, who filed two complaints with the police station, alleged the police did not act.
Officer in-Charge of
Sitakunda police Nazrul Islam told reporters the yard builders had shown him the court order on Friday morning before felling the trees.
Sharif Chauhan, coordinator of environmentalist group Save Chittagong, said the act of the few influential people was nothing but simply a "large-scale loot" of government property in broad daylight.
Earlier, another group of influential people with a strong political link felled trees in another forest belt on the coastal embankment between December 2008 and February this year to set up seven ship-breakingyards.
Speaking anonymously, a Sonaichhari schoolteacher said the felled trees were irreplaceable as they were barriers against natural disasters.
Referring to the protection the Sundarbans provided during the cyclone Sidr, he said the villagers are surely going to face troubles during any cyclonic storms later.
During a visit yesterday it was seen that a huge part of the embankment was badly damaged during the last cyclone Aila.