42 saw mills operating illegally in Sakhipur reserve forest area

At least 42 sawmills are operating in the area under the jurisdiction of 11 forest bit offices of three ranges of Forest Department in the Sakhipur reserve forest area of Sakhipur upazila in Tangail district.

The saw mills have been established in the reserve and social forest areas and near the forest offices, reports BSS.

The sawmills are operating illegally and cutting shal timber and other valuable forest resources, which is a serious threat to forest resources, bio-diversity and ecology.

Jinnat Ali, president of the Sawmill Owners' Association of Sakhipur Municipality said, "The illegal saw mills are destroying Shal, Gazari timber and social forests. Most of the mills are owned by influential people of the area. Forty-two sawmills have been established in defiance of government rules, close to 11 forest bit offices of the forest officials under the Beheratoil, Bastoil, and Hatia range offices.

He said, "The sawmills are being operating here and there without permission and licence from the Environment and Forest Department''.

Malek Miah, general secretary of the Sawmill Owners' Association of Sakhipur Municipality, said, "Despite submitting written complaints repeatedly to the Tangail Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) demanding the eviction of the illegal sawmills, we are not getting any solution."

The president and the general secretary also said that as the illegal sawmills are operating in forest areas, traders are not coming to legal sawmills with timber. There are huge illegal sawmills within the municipality. "As a result, our business is suffering a lot."

They said they had requested the Forest Department to evict the illegal sawmills. They alleged that their legal trade was suffering because of the illegal business.

According to the rules of law, no sawmill can be set up within 10 km of a reserve forest area as per Section 7 (a) of the Forest Act. But several such units have been established inside and near the reserve forest and these sawmills are cutting freely the trees of reserve forest including shal-gazari.

Experts said that if the trees of reserve forests are cut continuously, the balance of the environment will be destroyed.

According to the list of the local forest department, out of 42 illegal sawmills, 28 are operating in the Beheratoil range area, seven in Hatia and seven in Bastoil range area. Leaders of Sawmill Owners Association claim that every illegal sawmill is sawing at least 200 cubic feet of wood per day. Accordingly, 3.34 million cubic feet of forest wood is being cut in a year.

Abul Hashem, head teacher of Bara Hamidpur Government Primary School, said that during school hours, the sound of the sawmills disturbs the children during their class hours. Also, wood powder gets into children's eyes.

“The mill owners are local influential people and no legal action can be taken against them,” he said.

Aminur Rahman, Beheraoil Range Forest Officer, said, "We sometimes evict illegal sawmills. Even we filed multiple cases against illegal sawmill owners. A week after the eviction, they install the sawmills again.”

Lutfar Rahman, Head of Geography and Environment Department of Sakhipur Residential Women's College, said that if forest timer is chopped day and night by illegal sawmills, these natural forests will slowly be destroyed. This will have a great impact on the environment. Due to the destruction of forests day by day, summers are now very hot and winters are very cold.

Abdul Ahad, Hatia Range Officer of Sakhipur Upazila, said at least 25 sawmills have been evicted. Rest of the sawmills will also be evicted very soon.

Tangail Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Sajjadur Rahman admitted the presence of illegal sawmills in the forest area of Sakhipur and said that the eviction operation is continuing. Despite that, an operation will be carried out to evict all those illegal sawmills soon, he added.