Bangladesh minister: We are cutting forests to shelter the Rohingya

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam has said forests were erased to building makeshift camps for the Rohingya who have entered the country fleeing the violence in Myanmar. The minister made the statement in a twitter post on October 1. He also posted a picture showing the makeshift camps.

Forests in #Bangladesh were erased to make room for make-shift camps for #Rohingya from #Myanmar pic.twitter.com/jp6zPiO3FR

— Md. Shahriar Alam (@MdShahriarAlam) October 1, 2017

According to UN, at least 501, 800 Rohingya have entered Bangladesh since August 25. Earlier in September, the government allocated Tk40 crore for the construction of roads in 12 temporary Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar.

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  As per the decisions, 2,000 acres of land near Kutupalong area in Ukhiya upazila will be used to build an additional 14,000 refugee shelters. The Forest Department’s data suggests, forest coverage of Cox's Bazar stood at 209,216.49 acres till December 2016.