Big Area of Sundarbans Gutted
Fire from cigarette butt or a sabotage by illegal loggers?
Ashes and charred remains of plants and trees at Chandpai range in the Sundarbans after a 'mysterious' fire destroyed vegetation in a three square kilometre area there.Photo: STAR
Smouldering ashes, billowing smoke and smell of charred plants and trees marked about three square kilometre area of Chandpai Range in the Sundarbans when this correspondent visited the area on Monday morning. Twelve hours earlier, villagers, fire fighters and forest officials doused the 'mysterious' fire that ravaged the forest area on Saturday night and Sunday. All along the five kilometres deep into the forest where the fire started on Saturday night, hundreds of neatly chopped stems of sundari, baine and other trees bore the testimony to rampant illegal logging in the world's largest mangrove forest, also listed as a World Heritage Site by the Unesco. Surprisingly, the mangrove forest in this part of the Sundarbans is covered with low and thick bushes instead of large trees. To secure the forest area of Amurbunia, more fire fighters from Morelganj yesterday walked over five kilometres into the forest area with heavy pump machines and hosepipes. Forest officials said they will keep a round-the-clock vigil in the area for at least seven more days. While some forest officials said careless discarding of burning cigarette butts by 'licensed fishermen' caused the fire, local people and over a dozen forest men referred to 'sabotage' by illegal loggers. Villagers living along a high embankment near the forest spotted smoke on Saturday night and alerted Gulishakhali Forest Petrol office over mobile phone at around 1:30pm. "As soon as we heard the news we informed high officials and requested Morelganj fire service for immediate action," Mohammad Shahabuddin, Range Officer of Chadpai, said. "We could not enter the forest on Saturday night due to lack of transport. On Sunday morning fire fighters were able to enter the forest and bring the situation under control after several hours," said Mohammad Kaiyum Khan, leader of a nine-man team of the fire brigade. During the last six years nine forest fires destroyed flora and fauna on hundreds of acres of land in the Sundarbans. The five kilometres of forest area that this correspondent covered on foot along with firemen did not at all represent the mangrove forest with its diversified plants and trees. Instead, there are only a few feet high thick bushes with creepers enveloping them. Logging in the area is so rampant that villagers openly talk about it in presence forest officials. On Friday, a day before the fire raged, forest officials walked into an area where logging is prohibited. Sensing their presence, some 20 labourers who were busy chopping down trees, fled into the deep forest leaving a good number of logs. Angered by the 'unusual' intervention, loggers, who have long been plundering the forest resources without any 'disturbance', might have done the act of sabotage, said a forest official requesting anonymity. "We heard that these people, known to everyone in the area, were planning to set the forest area on fire following several incidents with the forest offices during the last one week," said Mosharraf Sardar, a villager.
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