The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Despite declaring the Teknaf Game Reserve Forest as a protected area, its present condition is deplorable, said environmentalists and experts at a roundtable in the city.

At present, the government is taking initiative to rehabilitate more than 10,000 Rohingya refugees there. "If these refugees take shelter in the protected area, the forest will be ruined within a short time," they said.

They urged the government to rehabilitate the refugees to some other khas land outside the forest area.

The roundtable on 'Remedies to save Teknaf Game Reserve (Protected) Forest' organised by Save Environment Movement (SEM) at SEM auditorium yesterday.

Dr Monirul Khan, Assistant Professor of Zoology Department of Jahangirnagar University, Abu Naser Khan, Chairman of SEM, Barrister Raihan Khalid, Md Faruk Biswas, forest and environment researcher, among others, spoke at the roundtable.

Speakers said many trees of the forest have already been cut down and roads are being built there. Wood is being burned at brick kilns after chopping trees of the forest there. Brick kiln is the main threat to the natural forest and forest resources.

Though there is a law prohibiting that there should not be any brick kiln within three kilometres of the protected area, but eight brick kilns have already been set up around the protected forest area. As a result, biodiversity of the forest is being hampered every day, they said.

Due to environmental threat to the forest area endangered animals like parailla monkey and short tail lazy monkey have reduced in the last 20 years. Many forest animals like elephants, leopards, small pigs, chimpanzees, wood peacocks, pythons and others are dwindling gradually, they added.

Teknaf is the only game reserve the total area of which is 116 kilometres. Teknaf peninsula was environmentally rich because this is situated in the middle of the Indian and Malayan biodiversity region. But due to environmental degradation biodiversity of this region is under threat. In 1983, the government declared the game reserve a protected area.