Hilly areas turning deforestation by miscreants, nobody to stop
A gang has allegedly been cutting trees for years in different neighbourhoods of the indigenous Mro community in Bandarban’s Lama Upazila. The community also claimed that when they protest this act, the gang harasses and tortures them, with the help of their muscle power, firearms and false cases. The local administration, forest officials and law enforcers have turned a blind eye to this situation.
The hilly areas are turned barren by the deforestation committed by the hill-cutting gang. A huge stock of around 250 trees was kept piled up at a local school playground in the Bakkapara area. The gang has illegally cut these trees and stacked them here. Now, they will carry the trees by elephants to a nearby destination. They send these trees to different districts via motorised transport. A Jubo League leader runs a gang of 30-40 armed people in the community and nobody even dares to speak against them. In 2015, some members of the Mro community protested his illegal activities. In response, the kingpin and his cohorts filed false cases against them to harass the community.
We must say forests of the hill tracts are natural resources. The local administration has assured to look into the matter and direct the officials concerned to conduct drives if the allegations are found to be true. In cities and villages, no matter what it is, the ruling party men are leading in cutting trees, filling up water bodies, encroaching rivers, embezzling public money, extortion and all criminal activities. The law enforcers are afraid of the thugs’ political and economic power to bend laws in favour of them, while civil administration is reluctant to the criminal acts of the political men.
We must say political vendetta must be stopped in no time. A nation that achieved its independence through a nine-month bloodbath could not lease to political goons for establishing fear of terror. Civil administration must uphold the dignity of citizens prescribed in the Constitution, while the judiciary should be the custodian of citizens’ rights.
