Road development work was under way, and alongside it, the union chairman and his men had planned to cut and loot the roadside trees. At that moment the upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) of Sadar upazila, Belayet Hossain, arrived at the spot. He ordered all the trees to be seized and taken to the union parishad, and temporarily halted the road work.

The incident took place on a rural road between Bhulli and Pharabari in Borogaon union of Thakurgaon Sadar upazila.

Having received news of illegal felling of government trees, the UNO visited the spot at midday on Saturday (16 March) and spoke to the tree-cutting labourers and local people. They told him the trees were being cut on the orders of Borogaon union chairman Foyzur Rahman.

The labourers told journalists that about 200 trees had been cut, and that the chairman would pay their wages for the felling.

According to local sources, several local women beneficiaries have been caring for the trees for 30 years since they were planted under contract on government land beside the road.

Under a 1992 tree-planting project on the roughly 8-kilometre road from Bhulli Borogaon to Farabari, an agreement was signed between Thakurgaon Sadar upazila parishad as the first party, the Organisation for Rural Development (ORD) as the second party, and ten local women of the Bonolota Mohila Unnayan Dal as the third party. Under the agreement each woman planted 150 trees, 1,500 trees in total, and the agreement is in force until 2026. After that the trees are to be felled under government rules and the women are to receive a share of the profit.

But in the meantime the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) began widening the road, and the women allege that about 200 trees on the road were cut down without regard to any government rules.

The women beneficiaries allege: "The trees were cut without telling any of us. When we tried to stop it, no one listened to us. Then we told the UNO sir by mobile phone, and he seized the trees. But in the meantime some trees, and the leaves and branches, were looted."

Borogaon union parishad chairman Foyzur Rahman claims that on Friday (15 March) the trees were uprooted because the contractor used an excavator while box-cutting the road. The trees were being taken to the union parishad so they would not be looted, he said.

Asked about the sale of the trees and leaves, the chairman said the leaves had been sold but the trees had not yet been sold. Asked on whose orders he sold the leaves, he avoided the question.

The contractor, however, said he had given the excavator driver no instruction to uproot trees. He said several kilometres of road before the spot where the trees were cut had already been box-cut, and the box-cutting had been going on for several days without any tree being cut or uprooted.

He added that he had spoken to the excavator driver and learned that some local people had forced him to uproot the trees, saying they would take the trees away. "I don't really know who they are. An investigation into this incident will bring out the whole truth," he said.

Asked what rules apply to cutting government trees for road development, Sadar upazila engineer Abdul Kader could give no information, and instead told journalists not to poke their heads into everything.

An official at that office, who did not want to be named, said that if government trees need to be cut for road development, the upazila engineer writes to the UNO. The UNO then writes to the forest department asking it to mark the trees and set their price, and the trees are sold at auction. If there are any other rules, the UNO would know better, the official said.

When contacted again to confirm whether any such rule had been followed in this case, the Sadar upazila LGED engineer did not answer the phone.

Thakurgaon Sadar UNO Belayet Hossain said who ordered the trees to be cut or uprooted is a matter for investigation, and he did not want to comment immediately. But cutting so many trees was unethical, he said. For now the box-cutting on the road has been ordered to stop. A case will be filed, there will be an investigation and those responsible will be brought to justice, he said.

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