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FATIKCHHARI UPAZILA IN CTG
Forest land grabbed for cattle farm
SIFAYET ULLAH, Ctg
A portion of protected forest land in Sarta area under Chattogram (north) forest division in Fatikchhari upazila has been occupied illegally.
More than one acre of the forest land is being used to build a cattle farm, felling hundreds of trees to turn the land barren.
Officials of the forest department confirmed that they visited the area and found evidence to this end.
During a recent visit to the area, this correspondent observed that a shed for rearing cattle has been built on the illegally occupied land. Besides, encroachers have made an access road through the forest and also prepared to build more structures.
Locals alleged that Mohammed Mazher, owner of Sayeed Agro of the upazila, is leading the occupation.
Seeking anonymity, a woman from the area, said, “The encroachers have been constructing structures in this forest since last February but officials of the forest department have not yet taken any action in this regard.”
Mohammed Mazher, however, claimed that he built the cattle farm in the forest mistakenly.
“We built some structures on this land after some locals sold it to us as khas land. However, we have stopped the construction work there after being informed by the forest department,” he said.
Saiful Alam, ranger of the Chattogram North Forest Division, said, “We seized some bricks from the land and are working to file a case against the grabbers.”
Grabbing forest land and cutting trees of forest to build structures is a punishable offense under the Forest Act 1927.
SM Kaiser, divisional forest department official of Chattogram North Forest Division, said he was not aware of this encroachment as the field officials did not inform him about it.
“However, I will take legal action against the encroachers and conduct raids to evict the illegal structures from the forest land soon,” he added.
According to a study by the Department of Geography and Environment at Dhaka University, the green cover of Chattogram city has gone down from 68.34 percent in 1990 to 36.51 percent over the last 30 years.
The Chattogram (north) forest division revealed that 13,130 acres of the division’s 1,40,000 acres of forest land have been occupied by grabbers.
“No one could have constructed such structures openly in the forest land if forest officials had performed their duties properly,” said Mohammad Kamal Hossain, former professor of Institute of Forestry and Environmental Science at Chittagong University.
Building of structures in the forest is not only depleting forest area but also threatening the biodiversity, he added.