Trees dying as fish farm set up in occupied forestland

A good numbers of trees in Modhukhali reserve forest area under Kalapara upazila of the district are dying due to water logging as a local influential man set up a fish farm occupying a portion of the forest.  Mahtab Howlader of Purbo Modhukhali village set up a fish farm in the reserve forest area last year and built a dam to store water for the purpose. Consequent waterlogging is causing death to trees, especially kewra and choila species.  Visiting the area a couple of days ago, this correspondent found most of the trees in the fish farm area dying.

Locals alleged that Mahtab set up the farm occupying reserve forest land.  Mahtab, on the other hand, said he set up the farm on a land that he took on lease from the land office.  But he failed to show any relevant documents and no record was found in Kalapara upazila land office regarding the matter.

Source

Sohrab Hossain, Patuakhali http://www.thedailystar.net/country/trees-dying-fish-farm-set-occupied-forestland-170905

Posted by admin on Nov 12 2015. Filed under Bangladesh Exclusive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry