Regional Updates  -  Asia


"Where can we go if we are evicted from the Madhupur Forest?" tribals of Bangladesh ask
             forwarded by Richard Timm, csc

A National Eco-Park is now being set up in the Madhupur Forest of Bangladesh, 165 miles northeast of Dhaka. It will embrace 20,837 acres or 8,437 hectares of land. A UCAN reporter visited the site and talked with the adivasi (tribal) people who live in the area. Most of them are of the Mandi (Garo) tribe and are mostly Catholic.

Prodishon Kohrek, 35 years old, farms six acres within the forest. But has no title deeds for the land and has paid no land taxes. He says "My family has lived here in the same place for over a hundred years and there was no need of any land papers." The reporter asked him where he would go if he is pushed out of the forest. He answer simple: "I have nowhere to go." He will apparently not be entitled to any compensation for all the improvements he made on the land.

Jines Ritschel’s family was in the same boat. His ancestors lived about 200 years in the forest, he stated. His father got a notice from the government to produce papers in proof of his land claim but he does not have any to produce. In answer to a question of what he things about the proposed park he said: "We are very worried about it."

The National Park is a joint venture of the Government of Bangladesh and the World Bank. The plan for the park was prepared without any consultation with the forest dwellers who are living in the area. When they came to know about the project and began to organize in protest, work on the 12-foot high boundary fence had already begun.

The project calls for an expenditure of $50 million and has a target date for completion by the end of 2001.

On February 25, 2001, about 275 Mandis who had received summons from the District Commissioner’s office to produce their land papers in court within six months met at Corpus Christi Parish at Jalchatra, which is on the edge of the forest. They decided that those who have land papers should go to the District Court in Tangail. But in spite of going there many times and wasting much money, no hearing was held and no one got any word of what would happen to them.

The land papers which the Mandis hold are from British times, when the forest area was a Hindu religious trust (debuttor land, dedicated to the god Govinda) under the Maharajah of Natore. But after the Partition of India in 1947, although Muslim religious trust (Wafq) lands are recognized by government, the Forest Department rejects all tribal claims to the tribal lands as bogus.

Dr. Emilio Rosario, conservation management specialist, visited Holy Cross Father Eugene Homrich at St. Paul’s Parish, Pirgaccha, deep in the Madhupur Forest, on October 29, 1996. He said that the Forest Department with World Bank loans would remove the 16,000 from their homesteads and lands and put them in cluster villages within the project area "to protect the forest and environment." The forest dwellers will be prohibited from cultivation, cutting small-size timber and firewood or collecting herbs, honey, wax and other minor forest products, as they have been doing since time immemorial.

Within the National Park there will be outdoor recreational facilities, with a resthouse, picnic area, camping ground, flower garden, children’s playground, golf driving range, a man-made lake, horse track, bicycle track, forest trail, restaurant, etc.

For "eco-tourism" there will be an orchid house, cactus house, butterfly enclosure, aviary for small birds, enclosures for wild jungle animals and a 5-meter high and 100-meter long canopy walk.

Father Homrich has written to the Member of Parliament of the area, who is State Minister for Foreign Affairs and the National Adivasi Forum sent an appeal to the Prime Minister’s adviser. The National Adivasi Forum held a large demonstration in Dhaka in July to demand that the Mandis not be driven out from their ancestral homes.

Previous Presidents Ziaur Rahman and H.M. Ershad had assured tribal delegations that they would never be driven out of the Madhupur Forest.

As far back as 1982 it was announced that a National Park would be built on 40 square miles (= 25,600 acres) of the Madhupur Forest. The project was successfully opposed and the Mandis were not driven out. But it looks at this point as if the present project will be pushed through whether the forest dwellers like it or not.

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