14 persons sued for felling trees illegally in Barguna

BARGUNA, Dec 25 (BSS): Fourteen persons, including executive engineer of Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) of Barguna district, have been sued for illegally felling 300 valuable trees in the name of repairing flood protection embankment in Amtali Upazila.

MBL, a construction firm, illegally fell the trees in Dapadar Bridge and Sikandarkhali areas without any tender and in cooperation with officials of forest department and BWDB in the name of repairing of flood protection embankment.

Nurul Islam Munshi, a native of Sikandarkhali village, filed a case with Amtali Thana on Tuesday against 14 persons including engineer Abdul Malek, forest official Abdul Hai Selim and MBL representative Siddiqur Rahman Mirdha for cutting the trees.

Local lawmaker Advocate Dhrindranath Shambu visited the area on Monday and expressed his dismayed for indiscriminate felling of the valuable trees.

Barguna district forest department sources said that about 10,000 saplings of fruit bearing and wooden trees were planted in 1999-2000 in Dapadar Bridge and Subandhi embankment areas under a green belt afforestation programme of the government.