The coastal forests of Mirsarai upazila in Chattogram once held 10,000 to 12,000 deer. That number has now fallen to just 2,400. Other wildlife and trees have also declined significantly.

Coastal range officer Abdul Gafur Molla said the deer have declined because the coastal forest was destroyed to set up the National Special Economic Zone. He said, however, that some 41 lakh seedlings have been planted under the SUFAL project to build new coastal forest.

According to the Mirsarai coastal forest department, the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) took 22,335 acres of coastal forest in Saherkhali, Ichhakhali and Moghadia unions to build the zone. The forests had baen, keora and other trees, and deer, jackals, fishing cats, slow lorises, mongooses, snakes and other wildlife. Because most of the coastal forest was destroyed for the zone, the wildlife has declined, especially the deer. There were about 10,000 to 12,000 deer in these forests, but 80 per cent of them are now gone.

Between 2022 and 2024, four dead and four injured deer were recovered from the coastal forests. Two dead deer were recovered on 4 March 2022 from the coastal embankment at South Moghadia Ghona in Saherkhali union. They bore injury marks, and forest officials believe they were hit while crossing a road. On 12 May 2023, the coastal forest department recovered another dead deer beside the police camp of the zone.

West of the economic zone's zero point, the forest has been cleared, and about 10 acres remain, where more than a hundred deer can be seen. But forest grabbers have their eyes on that too, with some unscrupulous people trying to cut it down for fish projects. Abdul Kaiyum, a resident of the coastal area of Saherkhali union, told Jago News: "Countless deer used to be seen in the coastal forest. But since work on the zone began and the forest was destroyed, the deer have moved to the neighbouring upazilas of Subarnachar and Hatiya. Now and then locals find dead or injured deer and inform the forest department."

In 2024 the forest ministry wrote asking for 4,104 acres of the 22,335 acres taken for the zone to be returned. That forest has keora, baen and other trees, and the forest department is hopeful of getting it back.

According to BEZA, a policy decision to set up an economic zone in Mirsarai was taken at a governing board meeting in 2012, and the zone was inaugurated in 2016. It is being built over about 137 square kilometres beside the Sandwip Channel on the Bay of Bengal coast. Under BEZA's master plan, the industrial city covers 33,805 acres across Mirsarai and Sitakunda in Chattogram and Sonagazi in Feni. Of this, 41 per cent, or 14,000 acres, will be for factories only; the remaining 59 per cent includes open space, forestation, port facilities, housing, health, training and recreation centres. BEZA began taking applications for land allocation in April 2017. The BEPZA Economic Zone project in the Mirsarai zone was inaugurated on 24 January 2018, and four companies began production in March 2022.

More than 20 industrial firms have now started construction there. BEZA officials say the zone will create jobs for about 15 lakh people once complete.

The coastal forest department says about 41 lakh seedlings of various species have been planted under the SUFAL project to protect the coast. In 2020-21, 100 hectares of mangrove were planted under the Bamansundar and Moghadia beats. In those two beats, 30 hectares south of the Bashundhara site office on Road 3 outside the super dyke built in the zone, and 70 hectares beside Bridge 1 of the zone, were set aside.

Seeds were sown in 500 nursery beds in the zone in September and October 2021. The seedlings (four and a half lakh) were lifted and planted from March to September. Keora and baen seedlings were planted at 4,444 per hectare: 133,320 on 30 hectares in Moghadia beat and 311,080 on 70 hectares in Bamansundar beat. In this way about 41 lakh seedlings have been planted over various fiscal years, the department said.

Mirsarai coastal range officer Abdul Gafur Molla said 22,335 acres of coastal forest were marked for the National Special Economic Zone. Those forests had keora, baen and other trees and various wildlife, with deer the most numerous. "Of this, we have applied to get 4,104 acres back," he said.

Answering a question, he said locals report there were about 10,000 to 12,000 deer in the coastal forests, and 80 per cent of them have now vanished. "To protect the zone and the coast, we are creating new mangrove plantations by planting 41 lakh seedlings under the SUFAL project."

Sheikh Abul Kalam Azad, assistant conservator of forests in the Chattogram coastal forest division, said it was natural that Mirsarai once had many more deer. "It is part of the ecosystem. When there is more food, there will be more wildlife. Now the forest has shrunk, and the deer have shrunk too."

He added: "We have created one to one and a half thousand of new forest in Mirsarai and Sitakunda. If we can protect this forest, we can bring back the deer's habitat."

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