Destroying a forest in guise of ‘legal’ sand lifting

For over six years, vested quarters have been illegally extracting sand from a more than 3km stretch of land in the hilly area of Kalirchhara Reserve Forest in Cox's Bazar, resulting in extensive damage to the forest, hills, and wildlife.

At least a hundred large water bodies, each being 2-3 acres in area, have been created due to extracting sand there. The authorities concerned, however, have yet to take any measures to stop this crime.

The perpetrators have been continuing this illicit activity in the region by showing lease documents for a 4.43-acre area of Balu Mohol (sand field) from the district administration.

For years, the district administration has annually leased the sand field situated in Masuakhali canal under Eidgaon upazila of Cox's Bazar. The forest department has sent two letters in the last two years seeking lease cancellation due to its close proximity, only about 100 feet away, to the Kalirchhara Reserve Forest.

The forest department in the letters mentioned that a syndicate has been extracting sand in the area beyond the leased field and is thereby doing irrecoverable damage to the forest, hill and wildlife.

The district administration, however, did not pay heed to their request.

On October 5 this year, a task force comprising Cox's Bazar Sadar upazila administration, law enforcers, forest department and Department of Environment (DoE) raided the area and seized a huge amount of sand.

After the raid, DoE lodged a case against five persons including the lease owner Md Shah Alam, chairman of Rashidnagar union under Ramu upazila, bringing allegations of harming the environment by illegal sand lifting.

Confirming the development, Cox's Bazar UNO Mohammad Jakaria, who led the task force, said the DoE is taking necessary action against the people involved with illegal sand lifting.

Nurul Amin, deputy director of DoE in Cox's Bazar, said around 1.05 crore cubic feet of sand in 35 heaps have been seized while around 25 lakh cubic feet of earth have been dug due to sand extraction outside the leased sand field.

In April, Shah Alam got lease of the sand field being the highest bidder with Tk 32 lakh.

"A syndicate controls the whole operation and even we were not allowed to enter the area," said Reaz Rahman, forest ranger of Meherghona Range under Cox's Bazar North division.

The syndicate has been extracting sand from a large part of  agricultural land between the hills of the reserve forest. Around 30 to 35 persons are involved in soil and sand extraction and have been trying to legalise the activity using documents from the lease owners, including Shah Alam, he said.

The illicit activity of plundering soil and sand began around 15 years ago but turned rampant around six years back when the demand for sand went up due to the construction of Chattogram-Cox's Bazar rail link, he said.

"We filed around 16 cases and seized their sand lifting equipment at different times," he added.

THE MODUS-OPERANDI

The lease owner does not extract sand from the field, but provides slips to the sand lifters to show their activities as legal, and charges Tk 550 for each truck of sand extracted from the area, the official added.

Locals alleged that the sand lifters made several roads in the reserve forest area for their convenience to transport the sand. No outsiders are allowed in the area where the sand is being extracted from. Guards and check posts are in place there to collect money and keep outsiders away from the area.

Around 500-700 trucks transported sand from the reserve forest area every day, while around Tk 3.5 lakh was collected daily by the lease owner for slips provided to the sand lifters, they added.

Sand extraction has been stopped after the October 5 raid by the task force and the illegal roads used for sand transportation have been blocked, Reaz said.

Apart from Shah Alam, other accused in the cases filed by DoE and forest department include Ohidur Rahman, Mohammad Entaz and Nobi Alam of Rashidnagar area, Jasim Uddin, Abdul Majid, Amir Hossain, Abdul Mazid, Abul Kalam, Md Momtaz of Kalirchhara area, and Md Hasan of Meherghona area.

The lease will be cancelled since several allegations have been found against the lease owner, said Zahid Iqbal, additional deputy commissioner (revenue) of Cox's Bazar.

DoE filed a case in this connection, he said.

Zahid, however, said he has no knowledge about the forest department's objections regarding leasing out the sand field.

Meanwhile, a deposition was held at DoE's Chattogram office on October 19 in connection with the case filed by the organisation.

DoE assistant director Shreerup Majumdar said they asked for a detailed report from the Cox's Bazar UNO about sand extraction.

"We want to take action against the syndicate involved in this massive environmental destruction," he said.

Contacted, Md Shah Alam denied his involvement in illegal sand mining, claiming  he had only sold sand from the part he owns through the lease.

Shah Alam also denied providing slips to the sand sellers to legalise their illicit activities.