A gang is cutting down trees illegally from a Village Common Forest (VCF) in remote Diri Mro Para in Bandarban's Alikadam.

VCFs are used for water source conservation and as sources of livelihoods and other needs of ethnic communities in the hilly areas of Chattagram Hill Tracts. 

Diri Mro, karbari (village chief) of Diri Mro Para, said the loggers threatened the villagers with death as they protested tree felling.

Tong Yoi Mro, another villager, said they were facing a serious water crisis as the illegal logging was destroying water sources.

“How will we survive? We have to leave our ancestral homes if the logging continues,” he said. “All 12 families of our para are facing threat of eviction.”

Villagers alleged that Md Ali of Alikadam upazila and Md Kutub of Cox's Bazar's Chakaria upazila felled trees illegally from the VCF, managing the local administration and forest officials.

VCF plays an important role in conserving forest resources. It is a natural forest other than the government reserve forest around the house of the indigenous communities.

The current forest degradation rate warrants the importance and potentiality of VCF for sustainable natural resources management.

In the face of continuous forest degradation, the government issued a circular to the headman of each Mouza to conserve the VCF forests in 1965, said Jumlian Amlai, president of Parbatya Chattagram Forest and Land Rights Protection Movement, Bandarban chapter.

“A Village Common Forest is managed as the common property by the villagers. Generally, the community groups manage the VCFs under the leadership of the Mouza headmen,” he said. 

Bamboo, wood, medicinal plants and firewood of VCF play a significant role in the life of remote indigenous people, he added.

The issue of deforestation and environmental degradation in the CHT has received an increased attention in recent years.

Kamal Uddin Ahmed, divisional forest officer in Lama, said, “When we heard that trees had been cut down from the VCF in Diri Mro Para, we went to the spot and seized around 500cft wood.”

He said they could not visit every spot regularly due to manpower shortage. 

Contacted, Ali claimed that he and Kutub bought the trees from Diri Mro Para's village chief Diri Mro. But Diri dismissed the claim.