In the wake of strong protest, the Rajshahi prison authorities have stopped felling hundreds of trees—many of which are a century old—at a bird sanctuary located just behind the Rajshahi Central Jail at Sipaipara area in the city.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG, Prisons) Altab Hossain on April 29, directed the local authority to stop cutting down the trees.
Rajshahi dwellers staged human chains and demonstrations when the Rajshahi prison authority reportedly cut down old trees in the forest to build a training facility.
On April 29, an organization called Amra Rajshahibasi staged a human chain demanding a stop to the tree felling.
Activists, environmentalists, ornithologists, and people of all strata of life participated in the human chain.
At the human chain, the speakers said no one has the right to cut down the hundred-year-old trees and destroy the bird sanctuary. They said felling such a huge number of trees would leave a permanent impact on the environment and on the varieties of birds that have nested in the trees for years.
After the human chain, the organizers and participants went to meet Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) Mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton to press home their demand. The mayor then directed the Deputy Commissioner of Rajshahi to stop the felling and save the trees.
Rajshahi Deputy Commissioner (DC) SM Abdul Quader said: "I have directed the DIG prisons to take all necessary steps to figure out a way to build the facility while leaving the trees untouched. Not a single tree will be sawed down from now on."
Ornithologist Tarek Anu said: "Hundreds of bird species—including parrots and very rare owls—have nested in those trees for years. Many migratory birds also take shelter in the sanctuary. The forest is a beauty of nature. However, if the trees are gone, then the whole ecosystem around it will collapse. Birds and other small animals living in the forest will be lost."
World traveler Tanvir Apu said: "I have travelled around 675 cities in 65 countries across the world but never seen such cruel festivity of tree killing. In other places of the world, people try their best to save trees, especially old ones."
He said there can be no alternative to saving trees as animals and humans are deeply dependant on them.
Moreover, social organization Eligible Youth for Evolution (EYE) has also protested and condemned the illegal tree sawing.
Contractors and labourers confirmed that the Rajshahi prison authority had started to fell some—of an intended 561—old trees in the bird sanctuary; to build a training facility, administrative building, and parade ground.
When asked, Halima Khatun, senior jail super of Rajshahi Central Jail, said: "A training facility, administrative building, and parade ground will be constructed in the forest area. The Public Works Department is cutting the trees with the permission of the Forest Department. Efforts are being made to construct the facility while saving as many trees as possible. However it will not be possible to save all of them. More than hundred small and large trees will be cut down but we also have plans to plant more trees in exchange."
