Nature in Bhawalgarh area is being ruined to make way for plots in the new township Purbachal. The high and low lands of Borokaw and Parabarta mouzas in Kaliganj upazila of Gazipur are being flattened and filled with sand.
Our correspondent saw the same situation during his six visits in the area over the last four years.
Assessing the reports of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (RAJUK), Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (BELA) said most of the acquired 1300 acres of the land is mainly covered with sal and some other trees. A total of 30 to 40 per cent of the 677 acres of land there is marked as private forestation. Almost 11,00,000 different sizes of trees are being cut in these two mouzas to facilitate 2,000 plots.
According to Bangladesh Forest Act, if 10 percent of half a hectare area has dense plantation, then the area will be marked as forest. However, the height of the trees should be 5 meters or above.
The forest department has already declared five mouzas including Borokaw and Parabarta as forests.
According to the Environment Protection Act 2010, housing projects are a red-listed activity. It is a severe environment pollutant. According to the law, housing authorities have to obtain an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) certificate for a housing project. The authorities however did not take any EIA or environmental clearance for the Prubachal new town.
According to a High Court order on 2 February this year, while settling the plea of BELA, RAJUK has to collect an EIA certificate. The order also said hundreds of trees will be cut down if the layout plan of RAJUK is followed, which is not right.
RAJUK however in the court said the trees which were cut down were creepers or homestead vegetation.
Environment ministry on the other hand in their investigation report said that almost 80 per cent of the areas in Borokaw and Parabarta mouzas is covered with sal trees.
Former chief forest officer Yunus Ali said, “We filed a case under the Forest Act to save the private forests in the five mouzas that came under the Purbachal project. And prime minister’s permission is needed to fell sal trees.”
A huge number of sal trees has been cut down without any permission, he added.
Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon (BAPA) joint secretary architect Iqbal Habib said, the issue of protecting the environment and biodiversity has been added to the constitution in this government’s tenure.
He also said this government also drew up the environment and water body reservation act. However, environment, biodiversity, and water bodies of the area are disappearing due to RAJUK’s Purbachal project. This is also encouraging the land grabbers to break the law, he added.
Eight organisations filed a plea with the High Court to exclude the 1300 acres of land of Borokaw and Parabarta moujas from the Purbachal project. They also requested the court to declare the area as an environmentally sensitive area.
The organisations included Ain o Shalish Kendra, BELA, Association for Land Reforms and Development (ALRD), Nijera Kori, and BAPA.
BELA chief executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan said “RAJUK mentioned a low number of trees in their report filed with the court. The court already ordered not to cut down trees and harm the environment in the area.”
However, RAJUK is not following the court order and this is a contempt of court, she added.
According to RAJUK’s website, Purbachal is the biggest planned residential area of the country. A total of 26,000 plots and 62,000 flats will be there in 6,150 acres of land. The project has been continuing for almost 23 years.