Bangladesh is amazingly green with myriad biodiversity resources. But at the same time it is a forest-poor country that has lost its forest cover from about 20% in 1927 to a mere six per cent today. Outside the Sundarbans, only tiny patches of forests survive today.
The hills of the Chittagong Hill Tracts are bare today. The gorgeous garjan forest with myriad local species that one could see while traveling along the Chittagong-Cox's Bazar-Teknaf highway, even a decade and half ago, are all gone. Plantations of exotic tree species (primarily acacia and eucalyptus) have taken the place of natural forest in many places. In the North-central and Northern regions, the sal patches have been replaced by "simple plantation" of exotic species. The remnants of the sal forests have become fragmented and only tiny patches survive today. The condition of the forests in the Northeastern region is no different. With the vanishing forests, the unique wildlife, forest-dwelling communities and their knowledge, traditions, and lot more have also become endangered or gone extinct.
What factors have led to this perilous condition? The typical response that come from the Bangladesh Forest Department, international financial institutions IFIs), donors and different other interest groups is that growing population, poverty, migration of landless people into the forest areas, shifting cultivation, illegal felling, fuelwood collection, etc. cause the degradation of the forests. But we normally do not look into other deep-rooted causes other than these official contentions.
The underlying factors for the destruction of the forests are an area where Philip Gain has investigated for the last one and a half decades. “Bangladesher Biponno Bon” is the outcome of his investigation. It's an updated Bangla edition of his book, “The Last Forests of Bangladesh”.
In the first of the three chapters the author has discussed the overall situation of the forests of Bangladesh. In addition to information culled from different sources, he has given deep background and insights that he has grown out of his interest and first-hand experience in the field. He strongly shows with evidences and arguments that it is not the poor and the forest-dwelling people who destroy the forests. Rather, colonial legacy, commercial interests, industrial plantation, and external influences and pressures are the major factors for the destruction of the forests and the sufferings of the forest people. He has particularly explained the severe consequences of the investment strategies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank.
In the second chapter of the book, the author has compiled 18 of his reports on the Modhupur sal forest that were published in the national dailies and weeklies since 1988. The reports document events and situations at different times. Through these reports the author gives an analysis of different processes of Modhupur sal forest destruction. He is also a witness to different incidents of the sal forest destruction during the last two decades. His reports on Modhupur are investigative and interpretative. Use of images taken by the author himself further authenticates the points he wants to make. These images clearly depict how commercial plantation [sugarcoated as "social forestry"], rubber, banana, pineapple, and papaya cultivation, controlled by the influential people, have brought the forest down to only fragments.
The last chapter of the book discusses who do what for the protection of the forests and the forest-dwelling people. The author himself for the past one and half decades has been engaged in different efforts to provide political protection to the forest and the forest-dependent people. He believes that commitment from different quarters and political resistance are imperative for saving the last patches of the native forests. In this chapter he explains how difficult it is to build political and people's resistance.
by Philip Gain
English, PBK 276 pages, 2005
Price: Tk. 250 US$15
