Forest dept loses one out of every four land-related cases
The Department of Forest (DoF) faces defeat in nearly one-fourth of its legal battles over forestland grabbing, according to a report submitted to the parliamentary standing committee on Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Suspecting that negligence and lax monitoring might be the reasons behind the unsuccessful attempts, the committee is worried about the rate of DoF’s failure in forestland reclamation.
According to DoF, the amount of grabbed forestland has risen to around 257,000 acres-most of which is located within reserved forest areas.
There are allegations that land grabbers have transformed the forestland into tourist spots and industrial units. Transforming forestland into residential plots or cropland is also common in Bangladesh.
Despite such deforestation in the country, Bangladesh is celebrating the International Day of Forest 2021 with the theme “Forest restoration: a path to recovery and well-being”.
In 2012, the United Nations marked 21 March to celebrate the international day.
Deputy minister for the environment, forest and climate change ministry, Habibun Nahar told Prothom Alo that the ministry will investigate whether there is negligence by the DoF-appointed lawyers or intentional surrender to the offenders behind DoF’s failure.
The ministry has given necessary instructions to look into the matter, she said recently. The deputy minister pointed out that DoF’s failure in land disputes is more common in a particular region where forestland grabbing is high.
Cases and results
According to DoF, 2,947 cases on forestland disputes are now under trial. Till 30 October 2020, the forest settlement courts delivered verdicts on 2,336 cases. DoF lost in 557 cases.
The forest settlement officers are given authority over the civil courts.
DoF sources said that most of the cases were filed by the wildlife and nature conservation circle of Dhaka, social forestry circle of Rajshahi, Sundarban west division, Cox’s Bazar north division and south division, central circle’s Mymensingh division, Tangail division and Sylhet division.
On 15 March, the parliamentary committee on the environment, forest and climate change ministry questioned the efficiency of the DoF-appointed lawyers as some members found no acceptable logic behind the DoF’s failure in the forestland disputes. They suspected the DoF-appointed lawyers’ intentional surrender to the land grabbers.
Earlier in February, one of the committee members Nazim Uddin alleged that DoF-appointed lawyers might get influenced by land grabbers.
Terming the rate of DoF’s failure rate as worrying, the committee chairman Saber Hossain Chowdhury shared his frustration, "Remuneration of the lawyers comes from the taxpayers’ money. The highly paid lawyer has brought out the poorest results.”
Mymensingh deals with the highest number of cases
The Mymensingh forest division is dealing with the highest number of forestland disputes with the highest failure rate.
So far, the division has received verdicts on 1,857 cases. Of the verdicts, 532 went against the DoF. The Cox’s Bazar south division received verdicts on 16 cases out of 212. DoF has been defeated in seven cases.
Explaining the reasons behind DoF’s failure, the divisional forest officer (DFO) at Mymensingh, Ruhul Amin said that DoF has to appoint defence lawyers in case a demarcation is needed before solving a dispute over forestland that is sharing boundary with personal property.
In most of the cases, the forest settlement court verdict over demarcation goes for the plaintiffs, intensifying DoF’s failure rate.
However, the DFO added, “The lower court orders are later revised by the Appellate Division.”
Replying to a question whether the DoF-appointed lawyers intentionally quit the legal battle or not, Ruhul said, “Our lawyers have little scope to manipulate the written complaints during their submission to the court.”
“The suspicion over influencing the court is questionable. However, DoF officials will accompany the lawyers at the court from now on to check land grabbers’ influence over the legal procedure,” he added.
Grabbing huge amount of forestland
According to DoF record, 160,566 land grabbers allegedly have occupied 257,158 acres of the country’s total 4,646,700 acres of forestland. Around 54 per cent or 138,613 acres of the grabbed land are located within some reserved forests.
Following the parliamentary standing committee discussions, the environment, forest and climate change ministry has directed the divisional forest officers to ensure supervision over the legal proceedings.
Cabinet division’s letter to mins
On 30 December, 2020, the cabinet division sent letters to all the ministries and divisions, directing them to deal with the prosecution cases more efficiently.
Government lawyers’ failure in the cases not only tarnishes the government’s image but also wastes a huge amount of public exchequers.
In the letter, the cabinet division provided three recommendations including skill-building of the legal wings, monitoring the state-related cases in collaboration with the attorney general’s office and increase of remuneration and transport bill for the persons providing legal support to the government.
The cabinet division also directed the secretaries to ensure intensive supervision over the state-related cases.
Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association’s chief executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan suspects that the forest department fails to reclaim forestland because of its indifference to winning the cases. She told Prothom Alo, “Corruption and under-table settlement might be the reasons. This is rare that the government unintentionally loses in its legal battle.”
Rizwana recommended demarcation of the forest land according to the cadastral survey map and management of the forest conservation in collaboration with local communities.
“All the forest land disputes must be resolved in coordination with the district administration,” she recommended.
*This interview appeared in the print and online editions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Sadiqur Rahman