By Md. Abdus Sattar
Thu, 14 Jun 2007, 13:30:00
While inaugurating the three month long tree-plantation programme in Tangail on 3rd June last the Chief Adviser Dr. Fakhuruddin urged all to come forward to joint the tree plantation movement as only the government efforts world not bring home fruits of any initiative. This is for the first time that a head of the government inaugurated the national tree-plantation week and fair outside the capital. This is to accrue a positive dividend for the nation.
The main theme and slogan for the movement is : Plant, rear more trees, don't fell trees. The nexus of the people goes beyond it to the extent of bringing to book the plunderers of the forest resources, who have amassed huge black money through blatant cases of the organised plunder of national wealth by denuding the forests through large-scale felling of tree, and to bring them to trial without delay. However, the success story of the forestry is also to be reckoned. The total size of the forest region is 2.52 million hector which is 17 per cent of the area of Bangladesh. Of this, hilly forest is 1.4 million hector, Mangrove forest 0.73 million hector, Shalban 0.12 million hector and grammen bank (forest) 0.27 million hector.
The very movement for the social afforestation was initiated far back in1981-82 which was implemented through the fund of Asian Development Bank (ADB), the government augured extentional Social Afforestation Programme, 1995-96 then coastal Green Belt 1995 which created 63898.00 hector woodlot, agri-buffer zone, hilly block forestry, by completing 19051 hector of re-afforestation. During 1981-82 to 2005-06, 49,413.00 KM road, embankment, railroad and strip were brought under the scheme for afforestation. 3,35,000 beneficiaries have been involved in social afforestation through profit-sharing principle, created massive rural employment opportunity, poverty alleviation. In 1981-82 personal nursery 10,000 created huge resources, grameen forestry scheme brought 7283 villages under its network which created huge rural resources, while industrial forestry in Sylhet, Chittagong. CHT, and Cox's Bazar for industrial raw-materials to the tune of 24,401 hector of land. Two pulp-wood forests have been built in Kaptai and Bandarban for the supply of soft-wood to the reputed Karnaphuli Paper Mills. The roles of forestation in small and college industries know no bounds-since 1990, bumboo, cane, etc. are being raised tirelessly and coastal embankment has been contributing a lot to this regard.
We need tree-plantation in real perspective. The tree-plantation has now assumbed a momentum of emphasis in the country. This is not a departure from the slogan-triggered events in society, regions of forests. The shalbans' of plain land were very wide-ranged in the past which has now been almost extent. Now, again in the regions of Dhaka, Tangail, especially at he Madhupur Hills this forestry should again be revived and its plantation invigereted by taping the cooperation of the tribal people there. They will also be provided with the wherewithal in the process.
The tree plantation process is nonetheless a phenomenon of national import. But tree-plantation as part of a national afforestation scheme has yet to assume a pragmatic and crucial shape in the ministry concerned which should be bereft a nay lip service and/or corrupt practices to denude the forest region.
The malady may be traced back to the early '80s when during the pre-upgradation of sub-divisions into full-fledged districts, the SDO of restwhile sub-division of Tangail while going to inaugurate the tree-plantation week at the country and ward ironically barred by his ageing orderly saying, 'Sir, not here, please plant the sapling on this very spot in which all previous officers have all along been planting trees. 'Though mere rhetoric, this simple instance bespeaks of our mentality and commitment to the very ordous tasks sacredly assigned to us. Are we clear to our conscious mere ceremonious pomp and funfare will accrue no benefit. The strict sense of commitment on the part of officials and national consciousness, patriotism-all have got to be ingrained in our sacred soil for perfect emulation and execution very ardently need for our survival. Otherwise, the very coming population upsurge, illiteracy, poverty, air and sound pollutions staggering unemployment and, most important, environmental hazards will all conglomerate to forestall the drudgery for our extinction as we have reached a point of no return; our backs have been pinned with the wall. It is feared, in the event of global warming areas of South-East Asia are vulnerable to be submerged under water of the Bay of Bengal in that the Southern Part, its one-third may be submerged under water within 50 years from now. The massive afforestation may save this part of our beloved homeland from the malady.
The whole-sale felling of trees for brick-fields, domestic fuel requrements, dishonest forest officials and wood-cutters is so very detrimental to our existence, and the preservation of the trees and saplings from the stray cattle heads for the proper perfect afforestation is a sacred responsibility for all in the country, nay the forest officials, indeed.
Ironically enough, hierarchy in the Government Department of Forests and the Ministry has conspicuously been perpetrating the wholescale felling of trees for self-denuding purposes and had there been no Royal Bengal Tigers, for instances, in the Sundarbans, the already extinct meagre-sized forests purview would eventually be squandered by the dishonest officials.
The situation has been tainted at such a galloping magnitude that a real panacea or recipe for it is far to seek. We have no language to direde such derailment for self-destruction.
Who does not know that we require 25% forest region for the ecological balance and we must rear it in a bid to avert natural calamities like total cyclone, tidal bores and hurricanes etc. A general apathy or lethargy for planting and rearing, preserving trees is having a pernicious effect in it and the very consciousness of the members of public has been ealing into the vitals of the scenario. Their consciousness in checking the deforestation process is yet to be noticed in angurating afforestation for economic buoyancy and ecological , balance through destroying chlore-flouro carban (CFC) as that is fatal to the very existence of human beings, other species and also plantation, Greenery of the planet.
The ozone-layer a hundred miles above us, has been checking the filtration of very fatal carbon rays on earth thus making the earth suitable for habitation still a fismant of the ray stealthily filtrates to earth and that why the skins of those humans and animals working in the sun become very reddish, coppery-vulnerable to the diseases like cancer etc. Only the oxygen which is derived from trees, creepers produce this oxygen which is again destroyed by CEC emiting from the production plants of aerosols, etc. green-house effect, which have spread, large scale in the industrial process, especially in the developed western world where a total transformation of the production process has been recommended. But alas a hole has already been created in the ozon-layer at the Anterctica level and all-out efforts exerted to repair-though afforestation and destroying CFC. We can ill-afford to deny it any longer.
History aside, again we require about 25% of the total land area covered, by forests, but we have hardly17% of it at present. The government is now well-sized with this bizarre situation. The shifting of the famercy from the heart of the city tot he periphery in a case i point.
The government forestation scheme includes the 3-month long Tree-plantation and Fair Week, plantation of more than 10 crore saplings of helly, fruit-bearing and herbal trees and other shade-giving trees, augymentation of forest regions and the formation of a green-belt along the coastal areas in the southern part of the country. But the machinery for the implementation of it is a remshacle one.
The daze of the Green-house effect and the uncomitant environment pollution has all the more necessitated dormant need for tree. Plantation in a massive magnitude. And the need for protecting the saplings planted and trees from the illegal poachers and corrupt officials has been all the more paramount. The global conference on Environmental in Rio-detenero in Brazil in 1992 vouchsafed similar recommendations in the 21-point demand for actualisation; the process is continuing in further conference now and then, the last being G-8 summit in Berlin.
Hence it is expected that the authorities will judiciously cogitate over the pertinent issue on an even keel through exhorting the people in greater efforts for doing the needful regardless of ranks for the needed affiliations in order to mobilise the personnel, manoevers with a renewed vigour and enthusiasm for the very resilience of the national economy and the survival of habritation in particular.
© Copyright 2003 by The New Nation
Source : http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_36815.shtml#top
Thu, 14 Jun 2007, 13:30:00
While inaugurating the three month long tree-plantation programme in Tangail on 3rd June last the Chief Adviser Dr. Fakhuruddin urged all to come forward to joint the tree plantation movement as only the government efforts world not bring home fruits of any initiative. This is for the first time that a head of the government inaugurated the national tree-plantation week and fair outside the capital. This is to accrue a positive dividend for the nation.
The main theme and slogan for the movement is : Plant, rear more trees, don't fell trees. The nexus of the people goes beyond it to the extent of bringing to book the plunderers of the forest resources, who have amassed huge black money through blatant cases of the organised plunder of national wealth by denuding the forests through large-scale felling of tree, and to bring them to trial without delay. However, the success story of the forestry is also to be reckoned. The total size of the forest region is 2.52 million hector which is 17 per cent of the area of Bangladesh. Of this, hilly forest is 1.4 million hector, Mangrove forest 0.73 million hector, Shalban 0.12 million hector and grammen bank (forest) 0.27 million hector.
The very movement for the social afforestation was initiated far back in1981-82 which was implemented through the fund of Asian Development Bank (ADB), the government augured extentional Social Afforestation Programme, 1995-96 then coastal Green Belt 1995 which created 63898.00 hector woodlot, agri-buffer zone, hilly block forestry, by completing 19051 hector of re-afforestation. During 1981-82 to 2005-06, 49,413.00 KM road, embankment, railroad and strip were brought under the scheme for afforestation. 3,35,000 beneficiaries have been involved in social afforestation through profit-sharing principle, created massive rural employment opportunity, poverty alleviation. In 1981-82 personal nursery 10,000 created huge resources, grameen forestry scheme brought 7283 villages under its network which created huge rural resources, while industrial forestry in Sylhet, Chittagong. CHT, and Cox's Bazar for industrial raw-materials to the tune of 24,401 hector of land. Two pulp-wood forests have been built in Kaptai and Bandarban for the supply of soft-wood to the reputed Karnaphuli Paper Mills. The roles of forestation in small and college industries know no bounds-since 1990, bumboo, cane, etc. are being raised tirelessly and coastal embankment has been contributing a lot to this regard.
We need tree-plantation in real perspective. The tree-plantation has now assumbed a momentum of emphasis in the country. This is not a departure from the slogan-triggered events in society, regions of forests. The shalbans' of plain land were very wide-ranged in the past which has now been almost extent. Now, again in the regions of Dhaka, Tangail, especially at he Madhupur Hills this forestry should again be revived and its plantation invigereted by taping the cooperation of the tribal people there. They will also be provided with the wherewithal in the process.
The tree plantation process is nonetheless a phenomenon of national import. But tree-plantation as part of a national afforestation scheme has yet to assume a pragmatic and crucial shape in the ministry concerned which should be bereft a nay lip service and/or corrupt practices to denude the forest region.
The malady may be traced back to the early '80s when during the pre-upgradation of sub-divisions into full-fledged districts, the SDO of restwhile sub-division of Tangail while going to inaugurate the tree-plantation week at the country and ward ironically barred by his ageing orderly saying, 'Sir, not here, please plant the sapling on this very spot in which all previous officers have all along been planting trees. 'Though mere rhetoric, this simple instance bespeaks of our mentality and commitment to the very ordous tasks sacredly assigned to us. Are we clear to our conscious mere ceremonious pomp and funfare will accrue no benefit. The strict sense of commitment on the part of officials and national consciousness, patriotism-all have got to be ingrained in our sacred soil for perfect emulation and execution very ardently need for our survival. Otherwise, the very coming population upsurge, illiteracy, poverty, air and sound pollutions staggering unemployment and, most important, environmental hazards will all conglomerate to forestall the drudgery for our extinction as we have reached a point of no return; our backs have been pinned with the wall. It is feared, in the event of global warming areas of South-East Asia are vulnerable to be submerged under water of the Bay of Bengal in that the Southern Part, its one-third may be submerged under water within 50 years from now. The massive afforestation may save this part of our beloved homeland from the malady.
The whole-sale felling of trees for brick-fields, domestic fuel requrements, dishonest forest officials and wood-cutters is so very detrimental to our existence, and the preservation of the trees and saplings from the stray cattle heads for the proper perfect afforestation is a sacred responsibility for all in the country, nay the forest officials, indeed.
Ironically enough, hierarchy in the Government Department of Forests and the Ministry has conspicuously been perpetrating the wholescale felling of trees for self-denuding purposes and had there been no Royal Bengal Tigers, for instances, in the Sundarbans, the already extinct meagre-sized forests purview would eventually be squandered by the dishonest officials.
The situation has been tainted at such a galloping magnitude that a real panacea or recipe for it is far to seek. We have no language to direde such derailment for self-destruction.
Who does not know that we require 25% forest region for the ecological balance and we must rear it in a bid to avert natural calamities like total cyclone, tidal bores and hurricanes etc. A general apathy or lethargy for planting and rearing, preserving trees is having a pernicious effect in it and the very consciousness of the members of public has been ealing into the vitals of the scenario. Their consciousness in checking the deforestation process is yet to be noticed in angurating afforestation for economic buoyancy and ecological , balance through destroying chlore-flouro carban (CFC) as that is fatal to the very existence of human beings, other species and also plantation, Greenery of the planet.
The ozone-layer a hundred miles above us, has been checking the filtration of very fatal carbon rays on earth thus making the earth suitable for habitation still a fismant of the ray stealthily filtrates to earth and that why the skins of those humans and animals working in the sun become very reddish, coppery-vulnerable to the diseases like cancer etc. Only the oxygen which is derived from trees, creepers produce this oxygen which is again destroyed by CEC emiting from the production plants of aerosols, etc. green-house effect, which have spread, large scale in the industrial process, especially in the developed western world where a total transformation of the production process has been recommended. But alas a hole has already been created in the ozon-layer at the Anterctica level and all-out efforts exerted to repair-though afforestation and destroying CFC. We can ill-afford to deny it any longer.
History aside, again we require about 25% of the total land area covered, by forests, but we have hardly17% of it at present. The government is now well-sized with this bizarre situation. The shifting of the famercy from the heart of the city tot he periphery in a case i point.
The government forestation scheme includes the 3-month long Tree-plantation and Fair Week, plantation of more than 10 crore saplings of helly, fruit-bearing and herbal trees and other shade-giving trees, augymentation of forest regions and the formation of a green-belt along the coastal areas in the southern part of the country. But the machinery for the implementation of it is a remshacle one.
The daze of the Green-house effect and the uncomitant environment pollution has all the more necessitated dormant need for tree. Plantation in a massive magnitude. And the need for protecting the saplings planted and trees from the illegal poachers and corrupt officials has been all the more paramount. The global conference on Environmental in Rio-detenero in Brazil in 1992 vouchsafed similar recommendations in the 21-point demand for actualisation; the process is continuing in further conference now and then, the last being G-8 summit in Berlin.
Hence it is expected that the authorities will judiciously cogitate over the pertinent issue on an even keel through exhorting the people in greater efforts for doing the needful regardless of ranks for the needed affiliations in order to mobilise the personnel, manoevers with a renewed vigour and enthusiasm for the very resilience of the national economy and the survival of habritation in particular.
© Copyright 2003 by The New Nation
Source : http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_36815.shtml#top
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