Mirsarai (Chittagong) Correspondent

Miscreants cut down about 2,000 trees of various species of short-term gardens in the reserved forest land under the Sufal Project of Forest Department in arecent midnight.

The incident took place at Bishwa Tila in the Alinagar area of Karerhat Union No. 1 of Mirsarai Upazila of Chittagong district.

On the spot, it was seen that 25 selected beneficiaries of the 25-acre area of the garden created by the Forest Department on behalf of the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh for the purpose of creating short-term gardens under the management cost in the reserved forest land of the Forest Department in the Alinagar area of Karerhat Union.

In this regard, a beneficiary named Anwar accused BGB member Golam Mustafa Riyad, son of the deceased Ali Ahmed of Henju Mia Chowdhury in Alinagar arean filed a complaint with Zorarganj police station against 8-10 unknown people.

Golam Mustafa Riyad said that the land was purchased by us. In 2008, we purchased this land from a local for a stamp of 100 taka. We filed a complaint with the North Forest Department in this regard. When asked whether the land of the Forest Department can be bought and sold, he could not give a good answer.

A person who did not want to be named said that BGB member Golam Mustafa Riyad and his brother Parvez wanted to hire us as laborers to cut trees at night. We did not go to cut trees because it was illegal. But in the morning, we heard that many trees had been cut in that garden.

Shipon, who is engaged in the maintenance of that garden and is a beneficiary, said that Riyad came to the garden a few days ago and threatened me and asked me to move away from his place.

Alinagar Range Officer Monayem Hossain said, "We have heard about the cutting of trees in our reserved forest. We will take legal action after conducting an on-site inspection and investigation."

Zorarganj Police Station (Investigation) OC Amirul Islam said, "We have received a complaint about the cutting of government trees. Whoever did this has done a very wrong thing. We will investigate and take action."