Headmen and karbaris were given the duty of protecting the forests, not of clearing them, said Hla Thowai Hri, president of the Headman-Karbari Kalyan Parishad. He said the hill streams and springs have dried up as trees have disappeared.

He made the remarks on Saturday morning (17 June) at an awareness meeting at Arun Sarki Town Hall in Bandarban on Marma marriage registration and certificate distribution and the role of headmen in forest and land management.

He said the Sangu reserve, covering 258 square miles, was declared on 25 August 1981, and the Matamuhuri reserve in November 1880. Today those reserve forests are gone, and with the land stripped of trees the streams and springs have dried up. The forest department and the administration were responsible for protecting these reserve forests, he said.

Zoam Lian Amlai, president of the Bandarban chapter of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Forest and Land Rights Movement, said attention must now go to how to protect the reserve forests that remain in each mouza. What is lost cannot be regained, he said, but if everyone tries to return to how things were, various steps will be needed. So headmen and karbaris must carry out their duties honestly so that forests are not cleared further and land is not grabbed.

U Ni Hla Headman, general secretary of the Headman-Karbari Kalyan Parishad, said divorce now happens among hill people too, and it affects their children. It is hoped that divorce will fall once marriage registration certificates are introduced, he said.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.