4 illegal loggers held, 7 alleged poachers sued
Four illegal loggers have been arrested from Kaliganj Bazar under Rampal upazila of Bagerhat district with 192 sacks of charcoal made from sundari wood while a case has been filed with Shyamnagar police station in Satkhira district against seven people on charge of poaching deer in the Sundarbans.
On Saturday evening, police arrested four loggers from Kaliganj Bazar under Rampal upazila of Bagerhat district and recovered from their possession 192 sacks of coal made by charring sundari wood, reports our staff correspondent from Khulna.
The arrested are Shahadat Hossain Howlader, 40, Sultan Howlader, 55, Badsha Mia, 29, and Kabir Hossain, 23.
Shahadat is a notorious ringleader of an organised gang of tree cutters in the Sundarbans, who make charcoal by charring them in ovens and sell it to different brickfields, said Rampal police station Officer in Charge Md Nizamuddin.
The criminals make charcoal by charring sundari, garan and dhundul trees and earn huge money by selling it with the connivance of a section of forest officials, police said.
Logs of felled trees are transported out of the forest by boats for charring into coal in ovens made in different villages. The charcoals are thereafter transported to different destinations by trucks, police said.
An oven can burn 800 to 3000 kilograms of logs a day.
Authorities concerned including the Sundarbans Forest Division or district administration never gave any permission for opening ovens to make coal by charring wood.
Felling of trees right from the Sundarbans is banned and a punishable offence, Divisional Forest Officer Mihir Kumar said.
The smoke caused by ovens made for making charcoals poses serious threat to environment and public health as these ovens do not have any chimney, said advocate Feroze Ahmed, an adviser of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers' Association.
Our Satkhira Correspondent adds: Officer in Charge Toufiqul Islam of Chunkari Naval outpost in Shyamnagar upazila has filed a case with Shyamnagar police station against seven people including two arrested ones on charge of poaching deer in the Sundarbans.
Md Farid Khan, 35, of village Kalbari and Rafiqul Islam, 30, of village Munsjiganj, Abdul Hamid, Nur Islam and Ansar Sheikh of village Kalinchi and Sheikh Mahfuzur Rahman Ujjal of village Dhumghat in Shyamnagar upazila and Abdus Sattar Moral of village Bandokati in Kaliganj upazila have been made accused in the case filed on Saturday night.
Forest guards arrested Farid Khan and Rafiqul Islam.
As a group of forest guards chased two trawlers carrying poached deer, the poachers fled away with a trawler leaving the other one at about 12:30pm on Saturday, said forest officials.
The guards seized the trawler and found a poached deer there.
Arrested trawler driver Farid Khan told local journalists that Abdus Sattar of village Bandakati in Kalaiganj upazila along with the other accused went to the Sundarbans three days ago and hunted several deer.
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