The degree of indifference and neglect seen from the authorities when it comes to saving our forests is unacceptable and alarming, considering the accelerating rate of deforestation across the country. According to Global Forest Watch, Bangladesh lost around 9.4 thousand hectares of humid primary forest between 2002 and 2025. Additionally, the country’s humid primary forests shrank by 10 percent over two decades. Despite such alarming data, we do not see enough coordinated institutional efforts to save our forests, even though Bangladesh does not lack relevant laws or institutions.
A recent story published by this daily illustrates how illegal sand extraction and encroachment have deepened the damage in an already depleted Garjan Forest in Cox’s Bazar. The Paglir Bil Road area, located about 2.5 kilometres southeast of Dulahazara Bazar in Chakaria upazila, was once shaded by towering Garjan trees. Today, these trees have largely disappeared, replaced by wild shrubs and smaller acacia trees. The Forest Department’s social forestry initiative, introduced after 2012, has failed to yield positive results, largely because the trees planted by locals are indiscriminately felled.
Meanwhile, despite visible sand extraction, government agencies cannot seem to agree on who exactly is responsible for conservation efforts in the area. Forest Department officials claim they cannot take legal action for sand extraction as the area is not a reserved forest. The district administration says that without the Department of Environment’s (DoE) involvement, their hands are tied. Meanwhile, the DoE said it had no scope to act under the existing soil and sand management law in this case, alleging the district administration held the jurisdiction to do so. Such confusion among concerned authorities is deeply frustrating. If no government agency is willing to take responsibility for a forest that is being depleted by truckloads, what is the point of having multiple agencies tasked with ensuring environmental protection?
Unfortunately, many forests across the country are withering away due to illegal settlements, development projects, and commercial ventures, and other extractive activities. In many cases, politically connected local actors exploit weak enforcement to continue operating with impunity, as has been the case for Garjan Forest. We, therefore, strongly urge the relevant authorities to come together and formulate a plan to protect this forest from further exploitation and chart a course of action for its restoration. It is high time the government at large stopped seeing forests as isolated patches of land and began treating them with the dignity and protection they deserve.
