Madhupur Forest Lost Its Glory

Due to the problem of encroachment, neglect in preservation, corruption by the forest authorities, biasness in leasing forest land and partial attitudes towards indigenous people for ages has slowly reduced the vast green canopy of Madhupur into a barren land.

Madhupur Forest Reserve situated in the Tangail district of Bihar is facing a tremendous problem of encroachment from many years. According to the forest officials, earlier the forest area in Tangail district covers a vast land of 122,876 acres in five upazilas, of which Madhupur comprises of 45,565 acres, 47,220 acres in Sakhipur, 21,855 acres in Ghatail, 7,576 acres in Mirzapur and 669 acres in Kalihati. They also confirmed that 55,476 acres of the district are considered as the reserved forest of which 38,232 acres is in Sakhipur, 7,225 acres in Mirzapur, 7,251 acres in Ghatail, 2,500 acres in Madhupur and 185 acres in Kalihati.

Previously, a wild abode of Tigers, Langurs and Peacocks, Madhupur has now been changed into a banana and pineapple orchards where harmful insecticides and chemicals are commonly used. Along with these harmful things, another major problem which the Madhupur Forest Reserve is facing is the noise of Saw mills and establishment of brick fields in the forested area. The high pitched noise produced in the saw mills of the area overwhelms the sweet chirping of birds.

Tangail Forest Department has declared that around 58,000 acres of forest land is still in possession of the encroachers of which 20,000 acres lies in Madhupur, 19,500 acres in Sakhipur, 13,000 acres in Ghatail, 3,300 acres in Mirzapur and 150 acres in Kalihati upazilas. Near about 80,000 acres of the forest land has already been vanished due to illegal cutting of trees by the encroachers.

According to the Forest officials, the main hindrance in the path of protecting the forest is the shortage of the workforce and the logistics along with the link-up of some corrupt forest officials with the encroachers. They said that people having strong political connection and with the help of forged documents has grabbed the vast forest area of the region. They even bribe the officials to get lease holds of the land.

Then also the forest officials are trying their best to safeguard the forest area. They had started social afforestation programme and leased around 37, 000 acres in the last 10 years. Till date, the forest department has recovered a total area of 10,000 acres of which half of the land is recovered between the months of January and July in 2007, through motivation and use of force.

According to Mr Shah-e-Alam, District Forest Officer, in association with the local people the social afforestation programme continues on the recovered forestland. He suggest that if both the Forest Department and people residing in the forest land join hands than only the forest of Madhupur can be saved from extinction.