Sohel Kanti Nath, Bandarban

A festival of cutting hill is going on under the nose of the administration in Bandarban. Despite the supervision of the Department of Environment and the administration, illegal cutting of mountains is constantly going on under various pretexts.

Locals claim that the syndicates that eat mountains by managing the Department of Environment and the administration are cutting mountains day and night. As a result, the natural environment is being destroyed, and biodiversity is being threatened. Therefore, the locals demand a stop to cutting mountains to protect the life of the mountains.

Basically, Bandarban is a hilly district that is different from the plains due to its geographical location. This district has numerous small and large mountains, forests and natural biodiversity. Since there are high, low and large mountains all around, the amount of flat land is very small.

Millions of people in the district have cut mountains and established settlements at the foot of various mountains. Not only that, illegal mountain cutting with excavators is being carried out under various pretexts and effects, including construction of religious institutions, filling ponds and water bodies, construction of dams, use of soil in brick kilns, and construction of roads.

This festival of mountain cutting is going on in various places of the district including Banarupa, Siddiknagar, Rupnagar, Catchinghata, Notun Para, Balaghata, Kalaghata, Lemujhiri, Sualak, Tongkabati in the district town. Despite the supervision of the Department of Environment and the administration to stop illegal mountain cutting, the mountain-eating syndicates are cutting mountains day and night.

However, locals claim that the Department of Environment and everyone else are managing the syndicate's work of cutting mountains. On the one hand, as a result of free mountain cutting, the natural environment is being destroyed, biodiversity is being threatened, and on the other hand, there are incidents of loss of life due to landslides during the monsoon. To protect the living environment of the mountains and avoid the loss of lives due to landslides, the locals demand a ban on illegal mountain cutting.

When visiting several areas of the district town including Banarupa, Kalaghata, Bir Bahadur Nagar, it is seen that high mountains have been surrounded by tin fences. It looks like someone's house or some other establishment. But the real picture is completely different. The mountains have been surrounded by tin fences in this way to hide the eyes of the administration from the eyes of the administration.

Even then, huge mountains are cut with excavators in the dark of night. Later, the soil from the mountains is taken away in dumper trucks to fill water bodies and agricultural lands. Each truckload of soil is sold for 1,000 to 1,500 taka. And several mountain cutting syndicates involved in mountain cutting in Bandarban city take responsibility for these works. Basically, the owners of the land or mountains give them contracts to cut mountains in exchange for a large sum of money to the members of these syndicates.

Md. Karim, a resident of Banarupa Para in the district town, said, "For a long time, a group has been cutting down high mountains in different parts of our neighborhood. Even though we have stopped them from cutting down mountains, they do not listen to us. They are cutting down mountains in the dark of night and turning acres of land into flat land with excavators. We cannot sleep at night because of their illegal activities, they have even destroyed our roads. If cutting down mountains continues like this, in the near future there will be no mountains in this area, everything will become flat. Therefore, we want the illegal cutting of mountains to be stopped immediately."

Another resident of the same area, who did not want to be named, said, "They are cutting down mountains openly. We know that permission from the administration is required to cut down mountains. When we asked, they said that they are cutting down mountains by paying everyone including the Department of Environment, journalists, and police. Who are we to stop them! The way they are cutting down high mountains, people will die in landslides at any moment." He also said that administration officials came many times, but still they are cutting down mountains day after day. Maybe the administration has managed it, or why is the administration not stopping it. So we want these mountain cuttings to be stopped and those involved to be brought under the law, he said.

However, in this regard, Senior Chemist Md. Rezaul Karim of the Bandarban Environment Department said, we have visited all the areas in the district city where mountain cutting is taking place. The main problem is that on the one hand, we do not have enough manpower, only two of us are working. On the other hand, the syndicates involved in mountain cutting mainly cut mountains late at night. Due to which we cannot go to the spot at that time, when we go to the spot in the morning, no one is found. Also, no one around the cut area cooperates with information, it takes us a long time to gather information. Even then, we are conducting campaigns to stop illegal mountain cutting and are paying fines in addition to cases. We are also trying to identify the syndicates involved in mountain cutting.

It is mentioned that in the last 1 year, the Environment Department has fined more than half a crore taka including 72 cases against those involved in mountain cutting in the district.