Indiscriminate hill cutting

As recently as June this year landslides in the Chittagong Hill Tracts claimed the lives of more than 150 people, with indiscriminate hill-cutting largely to blame for the disaster. Thus it comes as a surprise that just six months on and despite a government ban on cutting hills, in Bandarban's Rowangchhari upazila, contractors of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board are doing precisely that, in the name of road construction.

“We don't need approval from the environment department to cut hills because we are working for the ruling party,” says Ujjal Das, a contractor of the project and an Awami League leader.

The Bangladesh Environment Preservation Act 1995, as amended in 2000, prohibits the cutting of hills without the approval of concerned authorities. The penalty for cutting hills without approval is up to two years imprisonment, a fine of Tk 2 lakhs or both for a first offence. For a subsequent offence the penalty is up to ten years imprisonment, a fine of Tk 10 lakhs or both.

“We are working for the contractors, Ujjal Das and Taposh Das,” bulldozer driver Saber Ahmed told The Daily Star during a visit to the spot, where large-scale hill-cutting activities were underway.

When asked about the project, Sub-Assistant Engineer Ershad Mia of the Bandarban unit of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board says, “We are building the seven-kilometre Kaintarmukh to Baiddopara Road under the auspices of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Rural Development Project. We have to cut hills to implement the project.”

“The problem is,” observes Zumlian Amlai, chairperson of the Bandarban chapter of the Pabatya Chattagram Forest and Land Rights Protection environmental organisation, “the Department of Environment and law enforcement agencies are not sincere in preventing the menace of hill-cutting. Over the years many hills in Bandarban have been destroyed by this practice. If it is not stopped the remaining hills will surely vanish soon.”

Hill-cutting not only exacerbates the risk of landslides that threaten human life and property, it also results in environmental degradation that undermines the region's biodiversity.