Crushed to death: How equipped and prepared are our foresters?

Back in 2015, I had the opportunity to visit Puspakathi, a remote forest patrol station located near the Bay of Bengal, about 60 km south of Shyamnagar, Satkhira. 

This was no place for tourists. There was no mobile phone network, and Shyamnagar was an eight-hour boat journey. The lone wireless device of the station had been out of order for a long time.

The forest station had only four forest guards. To our utter surprise, they had no guns. When asked why, they said because pirates "could attack them and take the guns away." 

A forest guard told us that the pirates occasionally slept at the camp buildings. Unarmed and hopeless, the foresters had no way to pick a fight with the robbers who would, apart from kidnapping fishers for ransom, often poach Sundarban's animals.

On another trip to the Sundarbans, we entered a canal near the Patkoshta station when we heard the sound of wood-chopping from up ahead. The armed forest guards accompanying us immediately ordered the boatman to reverse course, so we could avoid a face-off with a possible armed group of pirates or loggers.

These events sum up how poorly equipped and prepared our forest department is, to protect the forest against real threats.

Later, law enforcers, especially RAB, conducted regular raids, and many pirate gang members and their chiefs active in the Sundarbans were killed in "crossfire." Eventually, other gangs surrendered and now the Sundarbans is mostly pirate-free.

However, the department's helplessness against encroachers, poachers and loggers has hardly improved.

Just last Sunday (31 March), a forest department official lost his life while confronting culprits engaged in illegal hill cutting within a reserved forest area in Cox's Bazar's Ukhiya upazila.

Sajjaduzzaman, a beat officer at Dochhari Forest, was crushed under a dumper truck used in the theft. A forest guard accompanying Sajjad also sustained injuries during the incident and is currently undergoing treatment. 

Sajjaduzzaman. Sketch: TBS

The risks the foresters face often emanate from manpower and vehicle shortages, old weapons and ammunition, as well as structural negligence. The remoteness of the forest stations also plays a role in increasing the vulnerability of the foresters.

While forest officials are often blamed for their failure to protect the forests, what fails them is seldom discussed. "Foresters always work under dangerous circumstances. This was the case when we guarded the forests back in the days [1980s]; this is the case now," said Tariqul Islam, a retired Conservator of Forests (CF) of the Bangladesh Forest Department.

"Once in the Sundarbans, we were trying to scare off illegal loggers. I pulled the trigger again and again, but none of the rounds were fired. The loggers realised it and chased us back," Tariqul said.

This is particularly dangerous for the forest officials. In Rema-Kalenga Wildlife Sanctuary in Habiganj, I met a forest guard who was shot in his thigh. 

And when attacked by the criminals, foresters often hesitate to shoot, lest the poacher gets killed. "A murder case might ensue if anything like that happens," said Tariqul.

When shots are fired and poachers are killed, forest officials have to justify the shooting to magistrates, and witnesses are required.

"When shooting happens in the forest, there are only forest officials, and there are robbers. Who else is there to validate the reasons for the shots being fired?" the former forest official continued.

It does not end there.

A Range Officer stationed at Rema-Kalenga Wildlife Sanctuary shared a personal experience. 

"During a confrontation, my team shot a robber in the leg. Now, I had to hire a CNG autorickshaw to take him to the hospital in the upazila sadar. There was a risk of his accomplices attacking us on the way. Then I had to cover the cost of his treatment, spend money on police members guarding him, and take him to the court," he said.

"I never recovered the expenditure from the department," he said. In addition, the range officer reportedly had to pay bribes to get a clean chit on justification for using his firearm.

Tariqul Islam also said officials struggle to get repaid for the various expenditures, such as fuel cost for patrolling. 

Officials find guarding the forests at night with limited manpower and vehicles hard. And loggers often trick foresters.

Years ago, a forest officer of Lawachhara National Park described how loggers called him over the phone to provide a 'tip-off' about logging at Kalachhara, a village located in the west of the forest. He rushed to the spot in the middle of the night, and the next morning he found that loggers had stolen several trees from the opposite side of the forest.

Forest officials are often penalised for the lost trees, facing suspensions or loss of pension funds.

Several forest officials said this leads to officials resorting to corruption in order to secure their future.

A beat officer from Rema beat office in Chunarughat said, with a bit of irony, they usually hope the thieves also take the stumps after cutting the trees, so the theft goes unnoticed.

The remoteness of the forest posts carries other sorts of inconveniences for the officials as well. "When someone is ill, taking them to hospitals in time often proves difficult, resulting in loss of life," Tariqul Islam said.

Even for petty thefts like logging, local influentials, including members of parliaments, put pressure on the officers to release the offenders, he added. Forest officials are often forced to comply with such requests.

Lack of coordination with law enforcers and the department's own capacity continue to cripple the forest protectors. Preventing big businesses and industries from encroaching forest lands is something the department feels helpless against.

Around 2.57 lakh acres (more than 1 lakh hectare) of forest land is illegally occupied across the country.

In 2015, forest cover in Bangladesh was 18 lakh 84,000 hectares, or 12.8% of the country's land area. The total manpower of the Forest Department stands at less than 10,000, with many positions vacant at this moment. In reality, field-level officials are responsible for protecting hundreds of hectares of forest land per head.

Absence of motorable roads, or that of motorised vehicles, means foresters mostly have to patrol on foot, making it almost impossible to cover such vast areas.

The killing of beat officer Sajjaduzzaman happened just weeks after Forest and Climate Change Minister Saber Hossain Chowdhury asked the forest department to take a special initiative to recover about 2.57 lakh acres of forest land occupied across the country.