Refugee settlements, land-grabbing destroying hills in Bangladesh

Refugee settlements, land-grabbing destroying hills in Bangladesh

Forest officials say, at least 160,000 land-grabbers have illegally occupied 257,000 acres of forest land in 28 districts

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) - Thousands of acres of forest land in Bangladesh’s ecologically rich Cox’s Bazar district are getting denuded due to illegal settlements coming into the region due to the refugee influx.

The land-grabbers are also recklessly razing hills in the biodiversity-rich region.

“Such activities are seriously destroying forest biodiversity, forcing wild animals to migrate and cause damage to topsoil which is necessary for agriculture and forestation,” said Deepak Sharma, president of the Cox's Bazar Forest and Environment Conservation Council.

Around 9,445 acres of hill land are under the district administration.

The forests in Teknaf, Ramu, Ukhiya, Sadar, Chakaria, and Pmkhali regions have witnessed massive land-grabbing and hill razing, Cox’s Bazar-based environmental rights groups told Anadolu Agency.

“According to our estimates, at least 30% of all forest land is grabbed illegally in Cox’s Bazar. And we don’t have a plain land forest in Cox's Bazar. The forest land here is small, high and low hills or uplands and steep hills,” said Sharma.

Sharma said that environmental rights activists had repeatedly asked the government to arrange refugee settlements on the plain land in Cox’s Bazar rather than on the hills.

“We fear that in a two- or three-year span, we may only know about hills on paper, that there were hills in Cox’s Bazar. The Environment Department and the locals do not dare to protest against the land-grabbers as they have created an environment of fear,” he added.

Environmentalists allege that the land-grabbers excavate soil from the hills and sell it to real estate developers for filling lowlands or to brick kiln owners.

According to the Forest Department, at least 160,000 land-grabbers have illegally occupied 257,000 acres of forest land in 28 districts. Of this, 138,000 acres are reserved forest land.

Around 59,000 acres of forest land in Cox’s Bazar remain occupied by land-grabbers, accounting for 20% of the total forest land occupied illegally in the country.


- Unique biodiversity lost

A similar situation prevails in hilly areas of the Chattogram and Sylhet regions. Soil from hills is illegally collected for brick fields in hilly districts, according to environmental rights activists and experts.

The Cox’s Bazar rail link has also consumed 2,000 acres of forest which is not included in the official data, he added.

“Unplanned development activities are among the major concerns for forests being destroyed in Bangladesh,” said Sharma.

Shahriar Hossain, secretary-general of the Environment and Social Development Organization, told Anadolu Agency that rich biodiversity has been affected in Cox’s Bazar, Chattogram, and hilly districts.

“The hill-cutting (razing) affects the biodiversity. It has multiple impacts, including on the environment and agriculture and the population of insects goes uncontrolled. Biodiversity loss forces an increased use of pest control to kill insects in the agricultural land as the natural controlling mechanism gets lost,” Hossain said.

The destruction poses a serious threat to agriculture and food security.

Hossain said that influential land-grabbers have also established several shrimp industries, hatcheries, and other factories along the Cox’s Bazar Marine Drive Road to Teknaf.

“We will soon declare the world's largest sea beach environmentally endangered and abandoned,” he said.

He said that the region has witnessed a sharp rise in temperatures as well as an alarming rise in the incidences of landslides.

“A minimum level of rainfall now causes landslides,” he said.


- Razed to host refugees

Hossain said that a significant number of hills and reserved forests in the tourist hub of Cox’s Bazar have been razed to host Rohingya refugees.

Over 8,000 acres of reserved forest land in Cox’s Bazar were damaged due to refugee settlements, according to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Sheikh Nazmul Huda, deputy director at the Department of Environment, admitted that the government has been unable to stop incidents of hill razing.

“Seven subdistricts out of eight in Cox’s Bazar district have hill biodiversity. And there are only three officials who are authorized to lead a legal drive against illegal hill-cutting. So, there is a serious shortage of manpower which prevents us from rushing to every incident,” he added.

He however denied the allegation that no action is being taken against influential people.

“We have filed several lawsuits against so many of them for their alleged involvement in cutting hills,” he said.

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