Modhupur, Tangail, Bangladesh

Modhupur
A Stolen Forest, Robbed Adivasis


The woodlot plot of Gamar, Bakain and Acacia has just been established. The planted seedlings loosely tied with sticks are trying to stand straight. Competing with the planted species are uncounted numbers of coppices of sal, haritaki, bohera, amloki and other local species. Other small plants in millions have also been emerging from a piece of four hectare forestland.
The local species shoot out straight without any support. As I walk through this fuelwood plantation [on 8 August] my mind goes back into events and development activities that have brought the traditional Modhupur sal forest on the verge of extinction. Plantation of exotics—rubber, acacia and eucalyptus in particular—is one major factor that has changed the Modhupur sal forest for ever. This change in the forest landscapes has severe consequences for the ethnic communities—Garos and Koch—who have lived in the forest for centuries.
The plot I walk through is in Telki, a well-known place in the middle of the Modhupur sal forest. A firing range of the Bangladesh Air Force was established here decades back on 1,000 acres of forest land. Rajabari, a Garo village was evicted that fell in the land given to the Air Force.
The Telki woodlot plot is located on the north-western edge of the firing range. The signs are clear that sal and hundreds of other local species had been cleared for the preparation of the plot. On the west of the plot is a stream of low land (baid) for rice cultivation. On its west are remnants of sal forest, still with good size coppices. Hundreds of species with growth at different stage are clearly visible from the eastern side of the baid. Untouched the patch will grow into full forest in years.
But what has happened on this side of the baid is feared on the other side. Two years back I had seen the similar coverage on this side. Sal and myriad other wild plant species were growing at different stages. A flock of monkeys was busy eating their favorite fruits high on the trees. Nobody has seen the monkeys since those trees and bushes have disappeared.
“Some ten days back the Forest Department had its hired laborers cut everything here, burn the clearings and establish the plantation,” reported Hatem Ali, chairman of the local Masjid (Mosque) Committee and the Telki Bazar Committee on 8 August 2003. They protested against the clear cutting of the sal coppices and the bushes that accommodated hundreds of wild plant species and myriad insects. However, Ali confesses that they retreated after the FD had offered two plots to the Telki Masjid Committee and the Bangladesh Truck Drivers’ Association (Telki Branch).
This is an uncanny feature of the so-called “social forestry”. The land belongs to the Forest Department (FD); loan money comes from the Asian Development Bank (ADB); and the FD establishes the plantations on public forestland. In Modhupur and other places, native forests and bushes, which could have been well protected through regeneration or enrichment planting, have been cut for over a decade to establish fuelwood or woodlot plantation.
Invasive or exotic species—primarily acacia and eucalyptus—have been planted as monoculture in woodlot or agroforestry. The locals and often outsiders are drawn into it as the so-called participants or beneficiaries who have no say about the selection of species. Telki is one recent examples of indiscriminate clearing of sal and other local species for plantations that has taken place throughout the Modhupur forest and other sal forests.
Currently, the FD is implementing the second rotation of fuelwood plantation throughout the country with loans for the Forestry Sector Project from the ADB. The controversy, debate and protest that the first rotation of plantation [beginning in 1989-90] generated are still alive. The FD continues to ignore all these protests and controversies around plantations. The ADB giving loan for plantation is an obvious driving force.
Woodlot and agroforestry plantations are supposed to be carried out on land, unencroached and degraded. But the way plantation has been carried out in Tekli is a violation of this stipulation. With minimum or no investment the FD could have allowed the native species grow into forest in the true sense.
In follow-up visits I have seen amazing things in this plot at Telki. On 5 September, I found the whole area covered with hundreds of species grown in millions that emerged with the monsoon rain. There was no open space on the ground. Coppices of all kinds of species dwarfed the planted species. The planted seedlings became almost invisible. Sad enough, when I went back on 12 September half of the plot was cleared of coppices of all the native species. The hired laborers cut not only coppices; they were digging out the stumps killing the native species for ever. I am quite sure, by now, the whole four hectare plot has been cleared of all young native coppices. Eventually, the seeds in the soil will be destroyed as the plantation becomes a permanent practice here.
The destruction of the native vegetation on public forestland seems irresistible. The FD officials argue that the local species are less productive and grow slow. With loan money from the ADB and the World Bank in particular the government has actually established plantations of alien species all over the public forestland. Except for the Sundarban, only fragments of native forests remain in Bangladesh.
To put what has happened on four hectare plot in Telki into perspective, I recall a meeting of the Garos of the Modhupur with the Minister for Forest and Environment (MoEF) Mr. Shahjahan Siraj at the Dokhola Rest House on 4 July 2003. The forest minister is flanked by the State Minister A.K.M. Mosharraf Hossain (energy and natural resources), two MPs and party cronies. The Garos are led by Ajoy Mree and Babul D’ Nokrek; they are also escorted by their fellow Garos and Father Homrich, an American priest who has lived among the Garos of the Modhupur forest for about 50 years. The Garos consider him their protector. Present at the meeting were also a good number of pineapple/banana traders, union council chairmen and members.
The meeting is intended to ease tension that has resulted from a government plan to erect concrete walls to protect 3,500 acres of sal forest among other things. Promotion of eco-tourism is also one main component of the Modhupur National Park Development Project. The Garos are opposed to the walls which has generated conflict for quite some time.
The FD has constructed about 8,000 feet (as of first week of July 2003) of walls out of planned 60,000 feet. Construction materials are seen in a number of places in the Modhupur National Park area. Many are surprised to see concrete walls in the forest. The Garos complain that the walls to protect the forest will limit their access to land and movement. A section of the angry Garos has also tried to put up resistance against the walls. In retaliation the FD has used the stringent forest act. Ajoy Mree and few others in the frontline of the protest were put into jail for some days.
Now they have sat with the minister for forest and environment to settle the dispute. The minister listens, becomes concerned, rebukes the FD officials and consoles the Garos. Many are pleased to hear the minister say with sympathy, “Those who live in the forest have more rights over the forests than anyone else.”
More pleasing is what the State minister says, “The Forest Department is responsible for the destruction of the Forest.” He is applauded. The FD officials know this is a political sermon not to be worried about.
The minister gave his words to dispose of the false cases against the Garos. However, the meeting comes to an end with the understanding that FD will implement the wall construction plan, but not at the inconvenience of the Garos. The Garos agree with conditions. They also agree to form a committee within two weeks to work with the FD.
It took more than a month to form the committee. But when it was formed a split became obvious. The Garo leaders who were in the frontline in the meeting with the minister on July 4 were out of the committee. The committee convened a meeting on 12 September at the Chunia Cottage near the Dhokola Rest House. The agenda of the meeting was all about implementation of the government plan for the wall construction. Those who are opposed to the plan of wall construction, were absent at the meeting.
While the meeting was confined exclusively on the wall, the Tangail DFO gave some appalling statistics about the state of the Modhupur forest. Out of 46,000 acres in the Tangail part of the Modhupur forest, 7,800 acres have been given out for rubber cultivation, 1,000 acres to the Air Force, 25,000 acres have gone into illegal possession and the FD controls only 9,000 acres.
These statistics have awful meaning. The biggest chunks of the Modhupur sal forest are pineapple and banana plantations today. Pineapple cultivation in Modhupur is not new. What is new of the popular fruit production is too much use of imported hormone to make the fruit bigger and ripen quicker. The Garos initiated the pineapple plantation in the forest. Banana plantation has expanded very quickly in Modhupur in the recent times. Now both pineapple and banana production and trade are controlled by the Bangalee traders. Excessive use of pesticides, including DDT and hormone is a serious concern.
Those who control pineapple and banana plantations are feared by common Garos and Bangalees. Nobody at the meeting of the Garos with the forest and environment minister raised the issue of pineapple, banana or cassava and their trade, which the environmentalists consider the biggest threats to the forests, soil and human health.
When asked why the Garos did not raise the issue of encroachment of the forestland for banana and pineapple, a Garo leader whispered, “Had we raised the issue we would have faced dire consequences.” He informed many present at the meeting were big banana and pineapple traders. They run their trade cashing on the forestland. The minister and other political leaders also did not say a word about pineapple and banana plantation on the forestland!
The walls in the Modhupur forest are being constructed under the Modhupur National Park Development Project. The stated objective of wall construction is to protect the last sal patches and their biodiversity. But the FD’s inability to stop illegal possession of the forestland and indiscriminate felling of coppices for pineapple, banana and cassava plantation make people disbelieve that the concrete walls will do any good to protect the forests. Instead, the local people allege that the FD officials and employees allow illegal possession of forestland for cash.
The Modhupur forest is awfully exhausted. Many fear that with the current trends of commercial plantation for fuelwood and cultivation of pineapple, banana and cassava going, the Modhpur sal forest will become history in the near future.
On the way to his meeting with the Garos at Dhokhola, the minister for forest and environment inaugurated a plantation of medicinal plants at Charaljani. He was accompanied by the Chief Conservator of Forest (CEF) and other government officials. Signs are clear that sal coppices had been cut around to establish the plantation of the medicinal plants.
This area was under the management of the Charaljani Forest Research Center (Silviculture). The center had an area of 425 acres until recently. The center handed over 40 acres in 1990, 40 acres in 1995 and 200 acres in 2000 to the Forest Department. It experimented with eucalyptus plantation from the sixties and recommended its commercial plantation.
At one stage of recent experiment with exotic species, the area in the center’s management was denuded like many other places in the Modhupur sal forest. Sal coppices emerged when time elapsed. A huge ditch was dug to prevent the vehicles and cattle from entering the coppicing area. The coppices grew quite well. Now the sal coppices are cut again.
Given the fate of sal coppices and other native vegetation in Telki, the sal coppices that have been consistently emerging in different parts of Charaljani and which can be nurtured into forest in the true sense, are likely victims of the so-called social forestry.
In Bangladesh “social” forestry on public forest land means big cash deal with loans coming from international financial institutions. The practice of “simple plantation” forestry has been passed for “social” “community” or “participatory” forestry. This has caused rapid destruction of native vegetation and its biodiversity assets on public forests. In Modhupur, once abundant with medicinal plants, one can hardly find native species such as Gandhi Gazari, Ajuli, Dud Kuruj, Sonalu (Golden shower), Sesra, Jiga, Jogini Chakra, Kaika, Sidha, Sajna, Amloki, and