About 25,000 trees have been cut from the Minjuri plantation in the Madhutila range of the Garo hills at Nalitabari in Sherpur, Krishi Shomoy's Sherpur correspondent reports. With every tree gone from the 10-hectare social-forestry plot, its 25 partner households face a loss of about Tk 40 lakh, and the Forest Department's failure to notice felling on that scale has raised questions about its role.

The plantation was raised in fiscal 2017-18 under the social forestry programme at Daodhara-Katabari mouza in Batkuchi beat, with about 25,000 acacia (akashmoni) seedlings and 25 partners. On the ground most of the plot is now bare, with grass and weeds in places and cut logs in others; residents allege an organised gang felled the trees over a long period and pulled out stumps and roots to erase the evidence.

Timber was seen leaving the forest by trolley; a driver named Karim said he was taking wood from Daodhara to Kusumhati in Sherpur and had been given no transport papers. Local timber trader and union parishad member Abdul Karim, however, claimed the trees had been broken by fire, storms and elephants and later cut by partners and residents.

Partner Nur Mohammad said that with the trees cut the partners will get nothing, and that the Forest Department could have stopped the felling had it wished. Another partner, Md Rukunuddin, said they had not seen who cut the trees at night but the loss was theirs. Environmentalists have accused forest officials of negligence or involvement.

Madhutila range officer Dewan Ali said he was not aware of the matter and denied the allegations. Mymensingh divisional forest officer Kazi Muhammad Nurul Karim said it is being examined, an inquiry committee has been formed and action will follow under the law if those responsible are identified. A social-forestry partner's income depends on a share of the timber at final felling, so a stripped plantation is a direct loss to 25 families.

Reporting: Sherpur correspondent, Krishi Shomoy.

Source: Krishi Shomoy