Forest crimes on the rise in Sundarbans
UNB, Bagerhat :
Forest crimes are growing fast in the Sundarbans as over 3,000 suspects are currently involved in criminal activities in the mangrove forest, exploiting valuable forest resources and poaching the wildlife, say forest officials.
According to them, suspected criminals frequently enter the forest illegally and log Sundari trees, hunt tigers and deer through trapping and firing, and catch fish from its rivers and canals using pesticide.
Even they set fire to the forest to make it clean so that they can catch fish during monsoon, the officials said.
“We (Forest department) have already filed 4,838 cases against over 25,000 people for allegedly committing crimes in the forest and those cases are under trial,” divisional forest officer (Sundarbans East Zone) M Saidul Islam told UNB.
Sundarbans West Zone of the Forest Department filed 4,511 cases against nearly 1,500 offenders under the existing forest and wildlife protection laws. These cases are under trial in different courts of Khulna and Satkhia. A total of 327 cases filed against 1,000 offenders under the Sundarbans
West Zone are under trial in courts of Khulna, Bagerhat and Pirojpur districts, Saidul said. Recently, the Sundarbans saw a number of fire incidents, with latest breaking out at Abdullah Shila in its Chandpai range in Sharankhola upazila on April 18, 2016. According to the forest office data, about 22 fire incidents took place in Sharankhula and Chandpai Ranges of the Sundarbans East Zone in the last 14 years (2002-April 27, 2016) burning 80 acres of forest and causing damage to the unique ecosystem of the world heritage site.
But, an official probe found that the fires broke out in the Sunderbans were lit by a group of people to facilitate fishing in the area. Local saboteurs are allegedly setting fires to the Sunbarbans in a planned way to destroy the forest for their personal gains. According to locals, villagers living nearby the Sundarbans often enter the forest and set fire to it to collect firewood and when the burnt area of the Sundarbans goes under water during monsoon and local fishermen use the area to catch fish. They also use the fire-damaged area as cattle grazing land during dry season.
Sundarbans is the lone natural habitat to tigers and endangered dolphins. But, the wildlife is currently facing various troubles in the country due to unchecked poaching and destruction of natural forests.
According to the Tiger Census 2015, tiger population also declined to 106 tigers in the Bangladesh part of the Sundarbans in 2015 while it was 440 in 2004.
The Forest Department data also show that at least 49 tigers were killed in the last 14 years (2001-2014) since the illegal poaching of wildlife and tiger-human conflict is on the rise in the Sundarbans, the country’s only natural tiger habitat with a range of 6,017 square kilometers. Besides, about 232 people were killed in tiger-human conflict during the period.
Forest crimes are growing fast in the Sundarbans as over 3,000 suspects are currently involved in criminal activities in the mangrove forest, exploiting valuable forest resources and poaching the wildlife, say forest officials.
According to them, suspected criminals frequently enter the forest illegally and log Sundari trees, hunt tigers and deer through trapping and firing, and catch fish from its rivers and canals using pesticide.
Even they set fire to the forest to make it clean so that they can catch fish during monsoon, the officials said.
“We (Forest department) have already filed 4,838 cases against over 25,000 people for allegedly committing crimes in the forest and those cases are under trial,” divisional forest officer (Sundarbans East Zone) M Saidul Islam told UNB.
Sundarbans West Zone of the Forest Department filed 4,511 cases against nearly 1,500 offenders under the existing forest and wildlife protection laws. These cases are under trial in different courts of Khulna and Satkhia. A total of 327 cases filed against 1,000 offenders under the Sundarbans
West Zone are under trial in courts of Khulna, Bagerhat and Pirojpur districts, Saidul said. Recently, the Sundarbans saw a number of fire incidents, with latest breaking out at Abdullah Shila in its Chandpai range in Sharankhola upazila on April 18, 2016. According to the forest office data, about 22 fire incidents took place in Sharankhula and Chandpai Ranges of the Sundarbans East Zone in the last 14 years (2002-April 27, 2016) burning 80 acres of forest and causing damage to the unique ecosystem of the world heritage site.
But, an official probe found that the fires broke out in the Sunderbans were lit by a group of people to facilitate fishing in the area. Local saboteurs are allegedly setting fires to the Sunbarbans in a planned way to destroy the forest for their personal gains. According to locals, villagers living nearby the Sundarbans often enter the forest and set fire to it to collect firewood and when the burnt area of the Sundarbans goes under water during monsoon and local fishermen use the area to catch fish. They also use the fire-damaged area as cattle grazing land during dry season.
Sundarbans is the lone natural habitat to tigers and endangered dolphins. But, the wildlife is currently facing various troubles in the country due to unchecked poaching and destruction of natural forests.
According to the Tiger Census 2015, tiger population also declined to 106 tigers in the Bangladesh part of the Sundarbans in 2015 while it was 440 in 2004.
The Forest Department data also show that at least 49 tigers were killed in the last 14 years (2001-2014) since the illegal poaching of wildlife and tiger-human conflict is on the rise in the Sundarbans, the country’s only natural tiger habitat with a range of 6,017 square kilometers. Besides, about 232 people were killed in tiger-human conflict during the period.
