Businesses including Nestle Bangladeh grab 12,000 acres of forest land in Gazipur

Nearly one-fifth of Gazipur’s 66,800 acres of forest land has been illegally occupied by businessmen and various companies, including Nestle Bangladesh, the government says. 

The Ministry of Forest and Environment gave the information to the parliamentary standing committee on Thursday but it could not identify all the encroachers

However, it listed 59 land grabbers, including several factories, a copy of which is available with bdnews24.com. It also named Nestlé Bangladesh, Nitol Tata Group, Partex Denim, Nisarga Picnic Spot, Sajni Film City and Millennium Steel Mills, among the land grabbers. Most of these companies are facing legal cases in courts.

The parliamentary standing committee on forests and environment ministry has sought a full list of the encroachers.  Committee chief Hasan Mahmud said the ministry had been urged to reclaim the land.  He said they would make final recommendations after getting the list of all the land grabbers. “Many industries have been set up in restricted areas, violating the Department of Forest’s directives,” Mahmud said. “Many own land there. But we’ve sought a list of those who have illegally occupied land there. “Names of these encroachers should be published.”