Take this as a sample and you cannot but be greatly heartened by the change of scenario. In a massive drive by the joint forces and local administration the government has recovered 1486 acres of forest land from a band of 15 grabbers from Sonadia island in Cox's Bazar lately. The challenge of course is to retain them in government possession with strong legal underpinnings.

Remoter the land area more convenient is the prospect for grabbing and keeping it by illegal documentation. In this case, the illegal occupants have been using this land for more than five years for shrimp and salt farming by shearing of the mangrove forest. Concocted lease agreements have been managed under what authority -- the land ministry, forest department or what?

So powerful were the vested rackets of government officials, political leaders and other influentials that land gobbling and indiscriminate destruction of forests became the order of the day in the Cox's Bazar coastal areas which turned out to be the happy hunting ground for shrimp cultivation. Millions in government revenue were denied. They would defy forest department cases and even court verdicts couldn't deter them from going about their business. It is time to deal with them with an iron hand.

Not only the expropriators of the people's land should be meted out exemplary punishment and the respective ministries should get back their lands for the protection of environmental balance in the country, a data-based pattern of land administration, management and utilisation will have to be evolved before it is too late for irreversible climatic changes to set in.