The forests in Tangail earlier were spread over 1,22,876 acres of land in five upazilas, 45,565 acres of which were in Madhupur; 47,220 acres in Sakhipur; 21,855 acres in Ghatail; 7,576 acres in Mirzapur, and 669 acres were in Kalihati, forest department sources said.

Of the total area of forests in the district 55,476 acres are reserved forests with 38,232 acres in Sakhipur; 7,275 acres in Mirzapur; 7,251 acres in Ghatail; 2,500 acres in Madhupur; and 185 acres in Kalihati, the sources added.

Besides, there are 17,436 acres of forests under Madhupur Garh region in Mymensingh.

The forests including the reserved ones in the district shrunk due to indiscriminate cutting and stealing of trees and encroachment upon the forests, the sources said.

Almost two thirds of the forests in Tangail amounting to around 80,000 acres already disappeared due to mindless cutting of trees allowed by some corrupt forests officials to satiate their greed, the sources added.

According to Tangail Forest Department, around 58,000 acres of forestlands in the district still remain grabbed by influential encroachers, around 20,000 acres of which are in Madhupur, 19,500 acres in Sakhipur, 13,000 acres in Ghatail, 3,300 acres in Mirzapur, and 150 acres are in Kalihati.

The forest department recovered around 10,000 acres of forestlands so far through motivation and by use of force, 5,120 acres of which were recovered in the last six months.

Various programmes, organised by different organisations, were also held protesting the disappearance of forests but to no avail.

Before the declaration of the state of emergency in the country, looting of valuable trees from the forests and encroachments on forestlands continued unabated, moreover, several markets sprang up at different places in the district, selling stolen timber openly.

Forest department officials claimed they could not take prompt actions against the looting of trees and the encroachments on the forestlands due to a shortage of manpower and logistics.

The forest officials said influential individuals having political clout grabbed vast areas of the forests by using false and forged documents.

"We are virtually helpless as 4,860 forest related cases remain under trial in courts," a forest official said.

Sources in the forest department, however, claimed that a section of corrupt forest officials having links with powerful political quarters helped land grabbers to encroach upon vast areas of the forests.

The wholesale felling of trees increased earlier due to setting up of numerous brickfields and sawmills near the forest areas, most of which were illegal.

The forest department in the last seven years leased out around 37,000 acres of forestlands in the district under the social afforestation programme.

Forestlands are supposed to be leased to local landless and poor people under the programme but mostly influential people and outsiders got most of the leases in exchange for hefty sums of bribes, different sources said.

A section of dishonest forest officials earned a large sum of money from those leases, the sources alleged.

Over 20,000 acres of forestlands out of 45,565 acres in Madhupur forest range still remain in the hands of encroachers. Outsiders and local influential people grabbed the forestlands, axed down trees indiscriminately and set up different fruit orchards including of banana and pineapple in the clear cut forest areas, the forest department sources said adding that the deforesters also constructed makeshift structures there to strengthen their positions.

The forests in Ghatail, Sakhipur, Mirzapur, and Kalihati upazilas are also in similar conditions.

Use of banned DDT, other insecticides and hormones in the banana and pineapple orchards on grabbed forestlands, has been damaging the environment and the biodiversity in these areas for long.

This correspondent during a recent visit to Madhupur upazila talked to officials of the local administration, forest officials, and residents including indigenous people.

Local residents alleged that valuable timber were stolen from the forests in collusion with a section of dishonest forest department staff and law enforcers.

Some local influential political quarters are also behind the large-scale destruction of the forests, they said adding that those people have links with forest officials, sawmill and brickfield owners, and timber merchants.

Felling and theft of valuable trees continue due to ineffective steps taken by local administrations and the forest department, local administration sources said.

Organised gangs of thieves employ poor indigenous people in exchange for paltry wages to cut and remove timber from reserved forests, they said.

Forest officials sometimes recover stolen timber and take alleged thieves into custody but the practice is only a part of a whitewash, they added. Forest department officials however denied the allegation.

Over 70,000 people of indigenous and Bangalee communities live in the forests of Madhupur Garh region, who depend on the forests for their livelihood, the forest officials said.

Local people do steal trees, since that is the profession of many of them, they added.

Meanwhile, after the declaration of the state of emergency the forest department with assistance from local administrations and the joint forces destroyed a large number of banana orchards on grabbed forestlands in Madhupur, and recovered a total of 36,000 acres of forests.

The forest ministry transferred controversial Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Tangail Abu Hanif Patwari on February 25, and Abdullah-al-Mamun joined as the new DFO of the district on the same day.

On May 16, the authorities concerned suspended Assistant Forest Conservator (ACF) Jahirul Haque, National Park Sadar Range Officer Kamrul Mujahid, Aurunkhola Range Officer Warish Ali, Dokhala Range Officer Abdus Sattar, Madhupur Range Officer Abdul Latif, and Charaljani Beat Officer Wadud Ali for neglecting their duties.

The authorities concerned also temporarily suspended DFO Abu Hanif Patwari recently, who has been absconding since then.

Law enforcers are now hunting for Patwari after the detained erstwhile chief forest conservator Osman Gani admitted to police that he had taken Tk 15 lakh from Abu Hanif Patwari as bribe when Patwari was the DFO of Tangail.

Forest and Environment Adviser to the Caretaker Government Dr CS Karim at a views exchange meeting in Madhupur on March 8 ordered the district administration and high officials of the forest department to recover grabbed forestlands, to replant sal and gajari forests on those, and to monitor the activities of sawmills and brickfields near the forests.

He emphasised on proper implementation of the social afforestation programme in partnership with the local indigenous people.

The adviser also formed a 13-member committee headed by Madhupur Upazila Nirbahi Officer Dr MA Parvez Rahim regarding the matter.

Meantime, the authorities concerned shut down over a hundred illegal sawmills adjacent to forests in Madhupur, Ghatail, Sakhipur and Mirzapur and fined many brickfield owners for burning wood in their kilns.

When contacted, Abdullah-al-Mamun, new DFO of Tangail, admitted to The Daily Star that influential people grabbed vast areas of forestlands in the district.

Efforts to recover the grabbed forestlands will continue, he said.

"We will replant sal and gajari forests on the recovered forestlands in partnership with indigenous and landless people under the social afforestation programme," the DFO said.