THE death of a forest official at the hands of a group of soil lifters at Harinmara in Cox鈥檚 Bazar on March 31 shows the extent of the dominance of people involved in illegal hill cutting, tree felling and earth-lifting. The forest official, who was in charge of the Dochari forest beat of the Ukhiya range, was crushed under the wheels of a dumper truck during a drive against hill cutting. The incident left another forest official injured. On information that a group of soil lifters was cutting hills in the Harinmara area to steal soil, the forest officer and a forest guard went to the spot on a motorcycle and signalled the dumper truck to stop. The dumper truck, however, ran over them and fled the scene, leaving one dead on the spot. This is not the first time that a forest official has been killed. Earlier in 2020, another forest official was killed while several were injured on different occasions when trying to stop illegal hill cutting, tree felling and earth-lifting. What is particularly worrying is that when hill cutting, tree felling, earth-lifting and forest land grabbing have continued unabated for years by people with political clout and when their dominance has grown to such an extent that they can even go away with killing or beating forest officials, the authorities have confined their efforts to sporadic raids.
There is a perception that such illegal activities have continued because of an unholy nexus between the authorities and the perpetrators. In December 2023, an illegal construction of a road by cutting hills at Lama, Bandarban, for the transportation of trees and sand made the headlines, while reports of illegal sales of soil and sand from hills have continued to make the headlines. In all such incidents of hill cutting, the involvement of leaders and activists of the ruling Awami League was found. Illegal hill cutting and tree felling are believed to be fatal as they significantly increase the chances of landslides, which have killed over 250 people in the past 15 years. Hill cutting and tree felling also go unabated because of the operation of many illegal brick kilns in the hilly areas, especially the Chattogram Hill Tracts and Cox鈥檚 Bazar. There are over 130 illegal brick kilns in the hill districts that unscrupulously cut trees and hills to use them as raw materials to make bricks. The High Court ordered the deputy commissioners of the hill districts not to allow the operation of illegal brick fields in the districts, but to no avail.
The authorities must, therefore, be stern to stop illegal hill cutting, tree felling, earth lifting and grabbing of forest land. The authorities must also take measures to shut down the operation of illegal brick kilns in the hill districts. As for the death of the forest official, the authorities must exemplarily punish those involved and adequately compensate the family of the deceased.