The forest department has recently sold 750 roadside trees through a tender
The forest department in Munshiganj has starting felling roadside trees on the Sipahipara-Dighirpar road and selling them.
Sources at the forest department said they were cutting down the trees since they had received permission to cut down the trees along 3km of road in Sadar, Tongibari, Gazaria and Sirajdikhan upazilas.
The forest department has recently sold 750 roadside trees through a tender, said the sources.
But local people alleged that they were not only cutting down mature trees but also saplings, which could be disastrous to the ecological balance.
Mintu Bhuyan, a resident of Rampal village, won the tender bid and bought 390 trees for Tk18 lakh while Delwar Hossain, Kabir Hossain and Kazi Arman won tenders for the rest.
Local people, however, alleged that some officials of the department are also involved in stealing the trees.
Abu Taher, regional officer of the district forest department, said he had taken initiatives to cut down the trees after taking permission from the Forest Ministry.
When asked about random felling of the trees, Deputy Commissioner Md Saiful Hasan Badal said he had stopped the initiative taken up by the forest officials and formed a three member probe committee on Sunday headed by Additional District Magistrate to look into the matter.
Magistrate AKM Shoukat Alom Mojumder said: “This felling of trees by the forest officials will be investigated soon.”
dhakatribune
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