Out of 46.52 lakh acres gazetted forest lands in the country, 2 lakh 57 thousand 159 acres have been occupied by one lakh 80 thousand 56 forcible occupiers for a long time.
These forest lands have been occupied to build houses, agriculture, salt farming, industries, hat bazaars, resorts, recreation centers and business establishments. Besides, educational and religious institutions have also been established there.
According to environmentalists, any country needs to have at least 25 percent forest cover of its total area. But Bangladesh has only 12.76 percent. Although the area of created forests is increasing, the amount of protected or natural forest is gradually decreasing.
Despite the existence of strict laws for protection of forest in the country, the question has arisen as to how more than 2.5 lakh acres of forest land has been occupied.
Concerned people say that earlier, the Forest Department had taken initiative in the name of showing people occupied free forest land. As a result, there was no success in recovering the forest land. However, the Forest Department took some initiatives at the end of 2020 to recover the forest lands. If this trend continues, it is possible to regain all the forest lands that have been destroyed.
Md. Amir Hosain Chowdhury, Chief Conservator of Forests told Bangladesh Post that there is no demarcation of forest lands in different parts of the country. As a result, anyone is easily occupying the forest land. Occupancy cannot be stopped immediately due to the manpower crisis and lack of necessary logistical support. The forest land is being occupied mainly due to these two reasons. Even then, at least 100 field-level officers and employees were injured in the last one year while trying to stop the grabbing of forest land. Many officers and employees have also been injured and killed before.
"We are working hard to stop the grabbing of forest land. At the end of 2020, about 7,000 acres of occupied land was recovered and afforestation activities were carried out there. There are plans to reclaim another 10,000 acres of land by June this year. Thus all the occupied lands will be recovered in phases. That is why various activities have been undertaken. For example, it has been proposed to increase manpower. Initiatives have been taken to demarcate the forest. Its piloting activities will start soon at Madhupur in Tangail district,” he added.
According to the forest department, 299 people have occupied 1,722 acres of forest land and set up permanent establishments and industries. In the name of establishing ‘hat-bazar’, shops, educational institutions, resorts, cottages, agricultural farms, educational institutions, etc., 5556 occupiers have occupied 13 thousand 435 acres of land. A total of one lakh 8 thousand 458 acres of land has been occupied by one lakh 10 thousand 836 occupants who built houses, dwellings. Besides, some 43,875 occupants have occupied 1 lakh 33,544 acres of forest land for gardening, agriculture, salt cultivation and other works.
Cox's Bazar district is on top of the list of forcibly occupied forests, where 52,535 acres of land has been occupied by 46,646 persons. Of this, 32,983 acres of land is included in the reserved forest land. In the second position, the amount of land occupied in Tangail district is 39,444 acres. The number of occupants is 23,956. Mymensingh is in the third position, where 11,593 occupiers have occupied 25,016 acres of land in the district.
Several officials of the forest department said that many of the refugees have occupied forest lands and established their homes. Initially no one objected for humanitarian reasons. However, more houses and other establishments were built there in phases. In addition, many people first set up religious or educational institutions to occupy forest land. Later, different people set up different factories and other establishments there. Basically, forest lands are occupied by such tactics.
The total gazetted forest land under the Forest Department in the country is 46 lakh 52 thousand 250 acres, of which the reserved forest area is 33 lakh 10 thousand 907 acres. But not all of these reserved forest lands are in the possession of the Forest Department. Not even on the record. The Forest Department does not have any updated information on how many acres of forest are recorded in the name of others or how many acres are in the possession of the occupiers.
Those concerned have claimed that it is not possible to keep a record of the reserved land due to a crisis of surveyors. The forest department has only 11 surveyors. With so few surveyors, it is not possible to get a real picture of forest records and occupation in 35 districts.
