Local forest department officials compensated a Garo woman whose banana orchard was cut down on land which forest department authorities had previously said belonged to them.
A meeting at the local forest department's Dokhla bungalow on Thursday in this regard, was chaired by Dr Zahirul Islam, divisional forest officer in Tangail.
The Madhupur upazila administration decided to compensate the woman with a house. Upazila Parishad Chairman Sarwar Alam Khan and Sholakuri Union Parishad Chairman Akhter Hossain also decided to compensate the woman further with Tk15,000 and Tk5,000 respectively.
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The meeting also concluded the woman can continue to use the land in Madhupur forest where the banana plants were felled as part of an evacuation drive. People from the Garo community say the land was passed on to her from her ancestors.
Among others, Tangail Additional Deputy Commissioner Jamirul Islam, Madhupur Upazila Nirbahi Officer Arifa Jahura, and Assistant Comissioner (land) MA Karim, were present at the meeting.
During the meeting about a hundred locals of the Garo community were present outside the bungalow with banners and festoons.
For a couple of weeks now, the Garo people of Tangail's Madhupur have protested an evacuation drive of the forest department in which the Garo woman's banana orchard on 50 decimals of land was felled in the forest earlier this month.
