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An indifferent forest department

Of the 367 Pabna sawmills, 340 run without forest department permits

Ahmed Humayun Kabir Topu with Andrew Eagle
Md Abdul Awal Titu is the owner of a furniture store and sawmill in the Singa Bypass area of Pabna town. Relying solely on a municipal trade licence he has been running both businesses for the last couple of years. In ignoring forest department guidelines he is hardly alone. Most Pabna millowners either don't know that department permission is required for sawmills, or they don't care.
"I don't know anything about a forest department licence," says Md Aminul Islam, who operates Jakir Timber, another mill in Singa, on a rental basis. "I am
licensed as a furniture trader," he says. "I don't know if the mill has forest department permission."
"In the nine upazilas of the district there are 367 sawmills," says forestry official Kabir Hossain Patwari. "Surprisingly, only 27 of them have a forest department licence. The rest are illegal."
As many of the illegal mills are owned by influential people, the forest department is reticent to enforce the law and close them down, he adds.
A sawmill should be located at least ten kilometres away from reserve forest. It must be outside residential areas. "In most cases sawmill owners purposefully establish their mills in the vicinity of
reserve forests, and also in residential areas," Patwari says.
The scale of non-compliance was brought to light in particular at a meeting last March, of the District Development and Coordination Committee. And yet, to date no serious action has been taken to address the problem.
Indeed, in light of this lack of law enforcement, local rights association Lawyers Society for Law has recently taken the step of having a legal notice issued against six government authorities.
"Notice to take action has specifically been issued to the secretary of the environment ministry, the director-general of the environment and forest directorate, the
divisional forestry officer in Pabna, the deputy commissioner, district forestry officer and additional district magistrate," advises Advocate Mesbahul Islam Asif, on behalf of the association.
The district's Deputy Commissioner Md Jasim Uddin claims better enforcement efforts have already begun. "We have launched a mobile court to seek out illegal sawmill operations and take action," he says. "The high number of illegal mills is primarily due to forest department negligence."
On condition of anonymity, meanwhile, several mill owners allege that they have to bribe forestry officials in order to keep their businesses running.