Plundering of trees from highways goes on unabated

The Independent (London), 16 June 2002

SHARIATPUR, June 16: Thousands of valuable threes like segun, shisu, mehogany , koroy etc, on the both sides of the highways of Faridpur district are being looted almost every night, reports BSS.

The trees, beside the roads of the district council and the union parishad in the district are also being stolen, local people said.

Most of the trees have no branches because some organized gangs are engaged in cutting the branches illegally by powered handsaws at night with the help of some dishonest members of the law enforcing agencies, they added.

The branches of the trees worth over Taka one crore have so far been stolen during the last five years from the aforesaid roads as a result government has been deprived of a huge amount of revenue and at the same time it is damaging the eco system.

The trees are put on auction showing them totally dried up having no timber value by the concerned department through suppressed tender in collusion with the bidders quoting nominal prices so that the dishonest officials could earn illegal money depriving the exchequer of revenue.