More than 150 baen and keora trees have been cut down in a forest known as the Mini Sundarbans in Shyamnagar, Satkhira. The trees were felled from woodland that grew up about five decades ago on a char of the Madar river in the Sora area of the upazila.

It is alleged that over the past four days workers of a contractor engaged by the Water Development Board (WDB) cut down the trees on the pretext of putting soil on the neighbouring coastal protection embankment. Following protests by local people, the union assistant land officer seized 132 of the felled trees.

Local people said the contracting firm Amin & Co recently received a WDB work order and began putting soil on the embankment in the Sora area. Instead of using baskets and spades, the firm began taking soil from the char with an excavator and dumping it on the embankment. Because the whole front of the char is covered by keora and baen forest, from Monday they cut down the trees on the char to make it easier to collect soil.

The contractor's manager, Awal Hossain, said WDB work assistants Tushar Barman and Osiul were standing by and supervising the work. Because there was no social forestry signboard there, about a hundred small trees were destroyed by mistake, he said. He denied the allegation that trees had been sold.

Humayun Kabir of Sora village said excavator driver Sohel led the tree felling, ignoring local people's objections. Approaching the WDB brought no remedy, so on Wednesday night he filed a written complaint with Shyamnagar police station against the workers. He also alleged that the contractor's men sold the felled trees to local people by the kg.

Ainul Haque, union assistant land officer in charge of the local Ramjannagar union, told Jagonews24 that on receiving the news he seized 132 trees from the spot.

WDB section officer Prince Reza told Jagonews24 he had learned that some trees had been cut by the contractor, and the work has been halted for now.

Md Abul Kalam Azad, officer-in-charge (OC) of Shyamnagar police station, told Jagonews24 that after receiving the complaint about the felling of trees in the protected forest, sub-inspector Liton had been assigned to investigate and take action.

These coastal forests protect coastal people during natural disasters. Several cases have been filed over the same offence before.

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