Greens firm on saving Lawachhara

Lawachhara National Park is under threat following the government's move to fell around 25,000 trees of the forest to ensure a safe rail communication.

With that in mind, Lawachhara Bon O Jibo Boichitro Rokkha Andolon has decided to continue its ongoing mass signature campaign to raise awareness among the tourists and people including school and college students in order to stop the government's move.

The signature campaign started from the day after Eid and ended yesterday, said Abul Hasan, member secretary of the group. “But we have decided to continue our campaign until our demands are met,” he said.

Earlier, on April 9, a letter signed by Md Arman Hossain, divisional engineer of Bangladesh Railway, was sent to Kamalganj Forest Range office asking the forest department to cut trees along the rail track of Srimongal-Bhanugachh section's 5km area, according to railway sources.

Clearing trees near the tracks will prevent accidents caused by trees falling across the railway line, it said.

But the green activists said felling of such large number of trees would threaten the environment and jeopardise the forest's biodiversity.

Contacted, Mujibur Rahman, assistant executive engineer of BR in Sylhet, told The Daily Star yesterday that plying of train through the forest has become risky because of trees.

That was why the BR had sent the letter with an entreaty to fell about 25,000 trees along the rail track in order to make train journeys safer, he said.

The letter also mentioned that the inter-district Upobon Express Train got stuck after around 30 trees lay on rail track after being uprooted by a storm on April 21, 2015.

“To make the rail communication safer, we have to cut the trees, there is no other option. But the number of trees would be less than 25,000,” he said.

Joly Paul, president of the Lawachhara andolon, said, "Railway authorities can make tracks a lot safer by shifting it out of the forest. But it seems the move is a ploy to sell the timbers," she added. She said they are also planning a large-scale protest to save the forest.

Md Nurul Mohmain Milton, general secretary of the Environmentalist Journalist Forum, said greenery from the national forest was already on the decline due to construction of several roads through the forest.

"Public transportation is not allowed through reserve forests in any part of the world. But here, it exists and has caused deaths of many wild animals,” said Abdul Karim Kim, general secretary of Bapa, Sylhet chapter. “For more than 10 years we have appealed to the government to move the tracks out of the forest, but we have been ignored," he said.

Asked, Mihir Kumar Doe, divisional forest officer for the wildlife management and nature conservation department, said, “Biodiversity of the forest will be threatened, if the trees were felled.”