“Land”, when you hear the word 'land', you may think of an economic asset. But for us , the indigenous people, it is much beyond just an unembellished habitat. It is connected to our spiritual beliefs and traditional knowledge. Our Indigenous surroundings are fundamental to cultural reproduction. In fact, the land is an identity to us. Grabbing the lands means killing our identity. That's why we often say, 'if the land is destroyed, then we too are destroyed'. Bad luck comes down upon us when the business tycoons and the ruling party together seize our lands in the name of tourism and business. Their insatiable appetite for profit and domination takes our home away and jeopardizes our identity that someday may lead to our extinction.
In the Chittagong Hill Tracts, like land grabbing, illegal logging also continues unabated contributing to deforestation, destruction of wildlife, and endangerment of indigenous lifestyle. Very recently more than 1 lac cubic feet of trees have been cut down destroying the deep forest of Bandarban. Illegal logging also happens to be one of the reasons for the drinking water crisis for the people living in remote areas of Chittagong Hill Tracts. These issues are concerning not only to the indigenous community, as creatures on this planet, these should be concerning to all of us. Resisting land grabbing is protecting the environment; stopping illegal logging is protecting our planet Earth.
So on this environment day, let's all take these issues into account. It is high time we resisted land grabbing. Let's talk about illegal deforestation in our Chittagong Hill Tracts. We should come forward to protect the environment we are living in. Say no more to annihilate the home for indigenous people. Let's save our only 'Earth'.
Credit goes to Neeti Chakma,
Eve Elizabeth Khockshi .
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