Naimul Haq, back from Tangail
Implementation of the National Park Project in the Madhupur forest in Tangail has sparked off strong protest from the local indigenous population.
The Tk 10 crore Asian Develo-pment Bank (ADB)-funded project envisages a park on about 3,000 acres in the over 20,000-acre forest.
Under the project taken up by the Ministry of Forest and Environment, a 61,000-kilometre boundary wall around the proposed park is being erected. Construction of a 5-kilometre stretch of the wall has already been completed.
About 25,000 Garo and Koch indigenous people live in the forest.
On Monday, more than 5,000 Garo and Koch men, women and children brought out processions and laid a siege to the office of the thana nirbahi officer (TNO) of Madhupur to register their protest at setting up of the national park. They chanted slogans demanding an immediate halt to the construction of the boundary wall and cancellation of the project.
The boundary wall would block seven major dirt roads through the forest, used for transporting vegetables and fruits grown by the indigenous people to make a living.
Each time an indigenous trader enters the area through the boundary wall in Rasulpur zone, he has to pay Tk 6 to 8 in toll for taking a van-load of fruits and vegetables. Indigenous leaders said the previous governments never imposed such toll as the "forestland belonged to the indigenous people."
They were concerned that the wall would hinder free movement of the indigenous people, who live mostly in mud-houses deep in the forest.
At a public meeting at Jalchatra Korpos Christy High School ground Monday evening, indigenous leaders gave an ultimatum to the government to remove all construction materials from the project site within a week.
Albert Mankin, convenor of the committee for indigenous people's land rights and environment preservation, said, "The boundary wall means we don't belong to the forest. It is like a boundary wall in your house. So, the forest department is constructing it to gradually evict us from our ancestral home."
He went on, "We love trees and animals and have been living in the forest for hundreds of years. But sadly some forest officials recently lodged cases against many of the indigenous inhabitants, accusing them of timber theft. What it means is they don't want us to live in the forest any more."
The decision to set up the park in the forest is a violation of the constitution, UN Charter of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and ILO Convention on Indigenous/Indigenous Population, indigenous leaders observed.
Those who spoke included Sanjeeb Drong, Ajoy Amri and Benedict Mansha. Artiste Mamunur Rashid and political leader Pankaj Bhattacharya also joined the public meeting.
"We have been living here for generations but suddenly they (authorities) are erecting walls to control our movement. I do not know why they are doing this," said an elderly man from Koch tribe.
Rakein, a 95-year-old Garo said, "My feeling is that the government does not want us to stay in the forest any more. It is better to die here than leaving the forest."
Meanwhile, hundreds of Garo and Koch families have already shifted to other areas over the years as the edge of the forest has been stripped of thousands of trees. The denuded land and traces of mud-houses testify to the fact, some indigenous people said.
It had been found that trees were felled and hundreds of acres of forestland cleared for banana and rubber plantation. But the initiative was not that successful.
Assistant Conservator of Forest Zahurul Haq said the boundary wall would not harm the existence of the indigenous people in Madhupur.
"The boundary wall is intended to protect bio-diversity of the forest and to stop pilferage of forest timbres to a great extent. We have evidences that many of the inhabitants have been engaged in timbre theft. The area we are demarcating is rich in costly timbre. In the absence of any protection, these timbres are vanishing every year," he said.