150 acres of Teknaf forest burnt

A fire broke out at different places of a reserved forest near the Rohingya camps in Teknaf on Thursday, reports UNB.

The fire occurred at separate places between Nur Ahmed Guna and Naitongpara within Teknaf municipality around 11:00am, burning thousands of trees and several vegetable fields, witnesses said.

Teknaf fire station officer Kiriti Barua said after being informed they rushed to the spot and after hours of frantic efforts they managed to control the fire at around 6:00pm.

The cause of the fire was not clear yet, he said.

Divisional forest officer Md Ali Kabir said around 150 acres of land including 75 acres of social forest were burned to ashes. The area affected is a stomping ground for wild elephants.