Indiscriminate felling of roadside trees to block roads during violent political programmes like blockades and hartals, has become a matter of concern for forest officials and environmentalists. These trees are being sold mainly by local opposition party men and a number of influential people at night. The protesters start felling trees from the daybreak and trading of the felled trees begins with the nightfall and the roads get cleared overnight. Sometimes the authority concerned is able to recover the rest of the trees. Road blockades cause immense sufferings to the commuters while a section of people, in the name of protest, loot roadside trees. According to Forest Department sources, if the trees matured enough, they would have fetched more money than they do now.
The recent prolonged blockades give protesters greater opportunity to cut down the roadside trees since it takes little time to fell a tree with a chainsaw. The trees felled belong to the Roads and Highways Department (R&HD) or the Forest Department and neither the district council nor the R&HD can take actions against the culprits if the offices don't file cases in this connection. Sometimes, the authority concerned files cases accusing unknown people in connection with the felling of trees but to no avail. It is also impossible for the law enforcers to keep watch round the clock.
Green campaigners are also concerned with the axing down of trees. It is a crucial question why should trees be victimised during political agitations? Any country should have 25 per cent forest of its total land area. Bangladesh has a poor share of eight per cent or so. The cutting of trees reveals an ugly side of our political culture. There are incidents of tree felling which kill passers-by. Again locals often block roads to protest against crimes and road accidents.
When political parties across the globe are embracing environmental issues on their agendas, our political activists are wreaking havoc on ecology and environment by their destructive activities. Common people observe national tree plantation month, tree plantation week in order to heal the wounds inflicted on nature and our major political parties have included the environmental issues in their election manifestos. They must not direct their activists to axe roadside trees.
Even Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sought everybody's cooperation in preventing the felling of roadside trees during political agitation and urged people not to harm nature. She also urged the authorities to take legal action under the Environment Act against those who had committed the offence. In the face of rising incidents of roadblock, we appeal to the people, the opposition parties and the government to shun the practice as it causes public sufferings.
The government allocates a large amount of money for tree plantation and these trees are public property. Only a few protesters can't destroy those in their personal or party interest. We are already affected by the adverse effect of climate change. So, we need to plant more trees in order to expand our forest area, our income from matured trees and maintain the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide.
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