Keep elephants away, save the betel leaf gardens
Urge Khasia people in Srimongal
Tree felling affects betel leaf plantation at Nahar Khasia Punjee in Srimongal upazila of Moulvibazar district as the creepers depend on trees for survival. Inset, elephants carrying tree logs at the garden. The photos were taken on Sunday.Photo: STAR
Indigenous Khasia people living at Kailin Punjee and Aslam Punjee near a tea garden in Srimongal upazila of Moulvibazar district have appealed to the authorities concerned to stop carrying chopped trees from there by elephants to save their paan punjees (betel leaf plantations). In a written petition submitted to the Moulvibazar deputy commissioner on December 12 and to the Srimongal upazial nirbahi officer on December 7, the Khasia people made the request on 'humanitarian grounds'. The mohaldar (bid winner) has got a verdict from the Supreme Court to carry 1886 chopped trees and so they have no objection to it, the Khasia people said. They, however, have urged not to use elephants to carry the chopped trees so that betel leaf plantations are not damaged. Many viruses usually spread out from the body of the elephants, which are very harmful for betel leaves, they said. A team of journalists from Dhaka and Moulvibazar visited Kailan Punjee (Nahar Punjee-2) and Aslam Punjee (Nahar Punjee-1) on Sunday to see the situation that appeared after chopping of about 5000 trees of those two Khasia punjees by the tea garden authority. Bangladesh Adivasi Forum leaders Shakti Podo Tripura, Pankaj Kondo and Deepayan Khisa were also present there during the visit. Ferly Surong, montri (punjee leader) of the Kailang Punjee, told the reporters that they had started living at the two punjees (Khasia village) near the tea garden in 1980. They had taken the lands from former owner of the tea garden on lease and cultivated betel leaves there. Their betel leaf cultivation is dependent on environment friendly trees as betel leaf plants are creepers and they wind around big trees. Birds sitting in the branches of environment friendly trees often eat harmful insects and thus help betel leaves from damage. So if there are no trees, there is no possibility of betel leaf cultivation. "But the tea garden authorities had sold out big trees of the two punjees. After getting permission from the forest department, the mohalder started chopping down the trees. Upon protest by Khasia people and different organisations, the forest department suspended their permission for tree felling. Later the mohalder filed a writ with the High Court that gave them permission to fell trees. The court had instructed them to chop only marked (by forest department) trees. But more than nine thousand trees including many unmarked trees had been felled down," Ferly Surong said. "Later the affected Khasia people became a party of the writ filed by mohalder Selim Uddin. Then the court ordered him not to cut more trees and keep the already felled trees in stack near the punjee. The mohalder then filed a leave to appeal to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court and got verdict to carry 1886 chopped trees on November 23 last year," he said. "We are fearing that after end of the tree feeling issue, the tea garden authority may evict us from our land in the name of extending tea plantation area. If we are evicted from this land we will be deprived of earning sources," Lutmon Pohlong, 55, a Khasia community member of Aslam Punjee, said. Khasia leaders said about 600 people belonging to 70 Khasia families live in the two punjees and they cultivate betel leaves on about 450 acres of land there.
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