Have you ever wondered what type of wood were used in your furniture or the chair you are now sitting on? If you observed it clearly or you went to buy furniture with your parents, you would get to know that everyone will prefer teak wood. In Bangladesh, mostly people are likely to use TEAK wood instead of others. But do you know how and where the teak wood comes from?
Teak wood is very famous and it originates mainly from Chittagong Hill Tracts. Yes, you heard right. Rangamati, Kaptai , Bandarban are the providers of teak wood . Many people do teak wood business and currently they are dependent on them. However, you may decorate your house with furniture made of teak wood. Due to this, many trees are being cut down and illegally smuggled every day. Even the local businessman says that there is no legal way of doing so. Hence smugglers extort them whenever they are carrying a pile of wood in their truck.
Since British rule, the degradation of forest resources started in Chittagong Hill Tracts. There is a huge demand for wood from there and it is helping to cause deforestation.
Indigenous people are blamed for their shifting cultivation which is known as Jhum Cultivation. They are blamed for forest destruction. Though there is no proof that it causes forest destruction, cutting down trees to provide teak wood is the main reason for forest destruction in Chittagong Hill Tracts. Trees are being cut down in Chittagong Hill tracts just to provide teak wood and this wood business is going on across Bangladesh. If you travel daily from Dhaka to Rangamati or Khagrachari to Dhaka, there is no chance of missing out a view of trucks loaded with teak wood. You can also have a glimpse of trees cutting down and kept beside the roads.
The writer is a human rights activist .
Comments