What fuels our appetite for turning wild forests into parks?

In 2021, the Bangladesh Forest Department had planned to build a safari park on 5,631 acres of land in the lone biodiversity-enriched reserve forest in Lathitila, Moulvibazar at an estimated cost of Tk980 crore. The primary phase of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park project was approved by the government in 2023.

However, on 21 August this year, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change formed a committee to assess the impact of this project on the biodiversity of the forest and the committee recommended that the project be cancelled. 

In their report, they said that the Lathitila Forest is part of the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot and is a corridor for elephant movement. The construction of a safari park there will have a negative impact on the forest area.

The ministry has not taken any final decision yet. However, this is not the only forest that was planned to be turned into a safari park or an eco-park. 

The former Awami League government allocated 700 acres of the 'protected forest' land in Cox's Bazar in 2021 to build a training academy for administration officers, named 'Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Academy of Public Administration'. That area of ​​Jhelongja forest, adjacent to Cox's Bazar-Teknaf Marine Drive, is environmentally critical.

The environment ministry has taken steps to cancel this project as well.

However, Altadighi National Park in Naogaon could not be saved. Designated as a national park in 2011, it encompasses an area of 264.12 hectares, located near the Indian border. The park is home to Altadighi, the largest reservoir in the district, spanning 55.46 acres. 

In the name of development and conservation of the reservoir, the forest department cut down over 1,000 trees, generating revenue through a tender sale of almost Tk36 lakh. 

When asked about this, Dhamirhat Paikbanda Range Forest Officer Anisur Rahman told TBS that 1,020 common trees that are "harmful" for tourists have been cut during the Altadighi renovation. There were no Sal trees here, he added.

In an earlier interview, we spoke to Dr Mohammad Ali Reza Khan, ornithologist and the principal wildlife specialist at the Dubai Safari Parks, Public Parks and Recreation Department, to explain why it is not a good idea to turn any forest into man-made parks in the first place.

"First of all, our government needs to decide what it wants — do we want a wildlife sanctuary or a safari park, or a national park, or is it a zoo that will bring in money? Because trust me, whatever we are doing here, does not fall in any of these categories," he said. 

"Safari parks in Bangladesh do not conform to global standards. They have destroyed natural forests and jeopardised the wildlife. The country also does not have a proper lab to test diseases that might affect the wildlife. The Dhaka Zoo lab is of low quality with machines lying idle because they were bought without having anyone who knows how to operate them," he said. 

Alta dighi before and after.

"Another example is, we travel on water vessels inside the Sundarbans, which are extremely harmful to the rivers and the ecosystem of the Sundarbans. Instead of fossil fuel-run boats, the Sundarbans area should only be entered in solar-powered or battery-run vehicles, so that the environment is unharmed and the water is not polluted at all," Dr Khan added. 

In Bangladesh, there are no proper policies to run these forests, safari parks or sanctuaries.  

Take the Bangabandhu Safari Park in Gazipur. Why were zebras and giraffes brought to the country when they are Savannah animals? And then, if you have created an ecosystem where tiger, monkey and deer coexist, you must keep a 20 feet deep and 25-30 feet wide water body or a wet or dry moat, so that when the tiger attacks, the deer can run and hide, while the tiger cannot cross the water body. Did we follow such guidelines? 

In one of his recent pieces Dr Khan discussed the Lathitila forest, where he said that although Lathitila is a denuded forest, meaning original or virgin forests have been replaced with man-selected or planted species of trees where undesirable and exotic plant species are flourishing as undergrowth or lower tier of this forest, it is still a thousand times better than all the Sal forests we have in the country. 

"The reason is that this small patch of almost isolated mixed-evergreen forest under the Greater Sylhet district is the last refuge for the primates, carnivores, rodents and herbivores that have so far been noted there. Nowhere in Greater Sylhet do we have such an assemblage of mammals," Dr Khan said. 

These include six each of nationally recognised Critically Endangered (IUCN Bangladesh) and Endangered species. Internationally there are one Critically Endangered, four Endangered and five Vulnerable species on the IUCN RED List (International). 

Therefore, the Lathitila Forest is nationally and internationally an important piece of biodiversity rich, denuded mixed-evergreen forest that deserves to be preserved in its entirety and on an urgent basis. 

So why did the forest department want to turn these forests into man-made parks? 

"It's not the forest department, it was the political elites and the ministry," said Dr Sajeda Begum, professor of Zoology Department at Jahangirnagar University. 

"If you declare a natural forest area as protected, it is fine. But when you are approving projects that include building infrastructure, bringing foreign exotic animals — that means you are destroying a natural forest that took many years to develop.  The native animals will have to fight with the foreign ones for survival," she said. 

"When it was declared that Lathitila would be developed as a safari park, many environmental experts protested the plan. But you have to understand, there are a lot of stakeholders here, who have their own interests to fulfill," Professor Sajeda added.

According to her, the reason behind this is a lack of appreciation for nature, as well as greed. 

The forest department agreed with this narrative. When we asked why they approved such projects to destroy natural forests, Md Moyeenuddin Khan, the deputy chief conservator of forests, said, "Please do not say that we approved these projects. In fact we have always submitted objections from our department. But when the ministry or the government makes a decision on their own, we cannot say anything.