At
least 30 trees were felled for allegedly grabbing the land to set up shipbreaking
yards in Sonaichhari coastal area of Sitakunda upazila.
 |
This
spot in Guramara area of Sitakunda was a government forest only three years
back, when around 20,000 trees were chopped off by unscrupulous ship-breaking
yard owners. And in the latest on Saturday night, unidentified people felled 30
other Kewra trees. Now there are only 10 trees left at the place, set to go
extinct anytime! Photo: Anurup Kanti Das
|
Hasan
Mia, beat officer of Coastal Forest Department of Sitakunda Range, said they
had seized the chopped off Kewra trees on Sunday.
Locals
said the trees were cut down on Saturday night and only 10 trees were left.
Yesterday,
during a visit to the spot, this correspondent found two tin-shed houses with
two signboards. One of those read --“Site for Nowshin Steel”, while the other
--“MSS Steel Recycling”.
However,
this correspondent could not trace any industry in Chittagong by the names.
Locals
said the whole area was covered by coastal forest before early 2009. On July 3
of the year, around 15,000 mangrove trees were felled on instructions of some
influential quarters who wanted to set up four ship-yards there.
On
November 29 of the same year, around 5,000 trees of the forest were felled
again.
Quoting
locals, Hasan said people from the ship-breaking business are involved in the
felling of the trees.
“We
are about to lodge a case in this connection,” he added.
Source: The Daily Star. 11 September 2012
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=249309
No comments:
Post a Comment