A case has been filed against four people, including officials of a private NGO, for cutting down trees beside a government road in Dhamrai, Dhaka.

Upazila forest officer Md Motaleb Hossain filed the case with Dhamrai police station on Sunday afternoon (26 September). The trees beside the road had been felled on Saturday (25 September), after which the upazila forest officer went to the spot and stopped the work.

The accused are Abdul Matin (62), director of the private NGO Sajag; its manager Md Masudur Rahman Masud (50); and the tree buyers Md Hanif Ali Bepari (30) and Sadhu Bepari (60).

According to the complaint, the upazila forest officer learnt that, without the forest department's permission, the NGO Sajag had sold a total of 132 trees: 107 trees on both sides of a three-kilometre road from Chapil in Sombhag union of Dhamrai to Naogaon, and 25 trees along a one-kilometre road from Bannakhola to Pathhara in Kushura union. The trees were then being cut down.

The complaint also says that when Dhamrai upazila forest officials went to the spot and tried to stop the felling, the NGO's officials and the buyers said: "We will cut the trees no matter what. Do whatever you can." Forest officer Motalib Al Momin informed senior officials and the upazila nirbahi officer. They then went to the spot and seized two machetes, two axes, two saws, a crowbar, rope and other tree-felling equipment.

According to the upazila forest office, the trees were planted on both sides of the road in 1990 under the World Food Programme (WFP).

Upazila forest officer Md Motalib Al Momin said Sajag had sold the trees at will without any permission from the forest department and had cut down almost all of them. Several mahogany trees on both sides of the road had been felled, with a current market value of about Tk 9 lakh 10 thousand.

Repeated calls to Sajag director Abdul Matin went unanswered, as his phone was switched off.

Md Atiqur Rahman, officer-in-charge (OC) of Dhamrai police station, said he had received the complaint about the tree felling. Legal action will be taken subject to investigation, he said.

Upazila nirbahi officer Hossain Mohammad Hai Zoki said: "Cutting government trees beside the road is completely illegal. No one has the authority to cut trees on government land like this. If trees need to be cut for a special reason, permission must be taken from the district and upazila committees. The forest department has filed a case against those involved in the felling."

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