Badsha Group has built a huge empire by occupying acre after acre of 'forest land' in Bhaluka Upazila of Mymensingh. The group is accused of buying a small area and occupying forest land worth hundreds of crores of taka. The Forest Department has filed several cases to recover the occupied land, but no progress has been made. These cases of the responsible group have remained out of discussion due to collusion. Despite repeated eviction notices, this empire of the Badsha Group is still in existence. Badsha Mia, the owner of the Badsha Group, who ate up forest land. In 1976, he came to Narayanganj from Madaripur in search of a livelihood and started a yarn business. At one stage, Badsha Mia became the owner of a yarn mattress. After starting the yarn business, he first set up a ready-made garment factory. In 2000, he established Pioneer Sweater Limited. Then in 2004, Badsha Textile Limited and Kamal Yarn Limited were established one after another in Bhaluka, Mymensingh.
Badsha Mia, with his bravery, has occupied acres after acres of forest land and cut down trees to build large factories. He has become financially wealthy by disrupting nature. Although he himself is wealthy, he has caused great damage to forestry.
The forest authorities complained that due to manpower shortage, lack of police assistance, complex cases and a tangle of rules, government forest land cannot be recovered. As a result, forest land is being encroached upon day by day.
When we went to the land in Badsha's empire in Bhaluka, we saw that the Badsha Group has occupied hundreds of individual forest lands next to the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway and built a huge factory of the Badsha Group. It takes a long time to go from one side to the other even by battery- run rickshaw. The factory of the Badsha Group of Industries is on one side of the highway. The factory of Pioneer Sweater Limited is located on the other side. These huge establishments are visible from the outside.
These factories were built by occupying forest land adjacent to their own land due to local complaints, personal influence and collusion with dishonest forest officials.
According to local sources, Badsha Textile Limited and Kamal Yarn Limited were established one after another in 2004 along the highway in Bhaluka Upazila. They occupied land worth hundreds of crores of taka, which is more valuable than gold and erected boundary walls to occupy the land. Later, Badsha Mia understood the situation and built multi-storey buildings.
According to the case file of the Forest Department, Badsha Group has occupied 10.72 acres of CS 63, 27.50 acres of CS 69, 23.40 acres of CS 74, as well as 10.72 acres of CS 63, 28.00 acres of CS 69 and 26.41 acres of CS 74 in Habibari of Bhaluka Range under Bhaluka Upazila. At that time, the lower court ruled in favor of Badsha Mia.
The Forest Department had proposed to the Deputy Commissioner to evict illegal structures on the property of Meherabari. But this eviction drive has not seen the light of day so far. The Divisional Forest Officer filed a case against the Badsha Group in the Mymensingh Joint District Judges Court-3 in 2018 to recover the land of the Meherabari mouza. According to the case source, Badsha Mia, the owner of the Badsha Group, occupied 61.52 percent of the land in three plots of 63, 74 and 69 of Meherabari mouza under Bhaluka Upazila.
The then Mymensingh Divisional Forest Officer Saidur Rashid had sought assistance in writing a letter to the Deputy Commissioner, District Police Superintendent and Bhaluka Upazila Nirbahi Officer in 2018 to recover these government properties and prevent illegal encroachment on the forest land. The Forest Department requested all parties whose joint survey on the occupied land had not been settled to maintain the status quo. But the Forest Department alleged that the administration at that time did not provide any assistance to the Forest Department. As a result, the Badsha Group continued to build their empire without any hindrance. One acre after another of the Forest Department's land began to be encroached upon.
The Forest Department is accused of directly and indirectly cooperating in the creation of the Badsha Group's encroachment empire. The Badsha Group is hiding how many acres of Forest Department property it has encroached upon. According to the Forest Department's calculations, this group is showing an estimate of encroaching on a total of 20 acres of property in two places. But the locals alleged that all the properties of the Badsha Group are land encroached upon by the Forest Department. It cannot be just 20 acres.
Meanwhile, apart from the Badsha Group, the country's renowned industrial groups are involved in the encroachment of Bhaluka forest land. The reign of encroachment is everywhere on the Bhaluka section of the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway. Some have built houses, while others have built parks and factories in place of forests. On the one hand, the construction of factories in forest land and on the other hand, the factory waste is directly in the canal line, which is a disaster for nature.
To talk about this issue, Barta24.com's reporter went to the office of Harunur Rashid, Deputy Director of the Forest Department's Bhaluka Range. However, Harunur Rashid did not agree to tell how much land the Forest Department has encroached.
When asked about the case of forced encroachment in Bhaluka Upazila, he said that he will calculate it and tell, he does not remember it at the moment.
Regarding the allegations against the Badsha Group, he said, "All the factories of the Badsha Group were built on forest land. There are many cases against this group for encroaching on forest land. However, the number cannot be said at the moment."
When asked what kind of activities are being carried out to recover the encroached forest land, he said, "The MP himself did not allow us to enter the encroached land, nor did he allow us to plant trees." Moreover, we don't even have a forest office there.'
We tried to contact Badsha Mia, the Managing Director of the group, several times to find out about the allegations of the Badsha Group building a factory by encroaching on forest land, but he could not be reached. Later, a message was sent to the phone. Badsha Mia did not respond to that either.
'The factory was built by encroaching on forest land without an environmental clearance. "There is no opportunity for us to occupy forest land or set up factories by occupying government land. Generally, there is no authority to set up a factory without an environmental clearance," said the TIB executive director.
"A group of local administrations, forest department officials, law enforcement officers and political influencers work together to occupy forest land. As a result, criminals take advantage of the legal process and move towards permanent settlements," said TIB boss Dr. Iftekharuzzaman.
"There is a lack of sincerity on the part of the authorities in recovering forest land," said Dr. Iftekharuzzaman.
"The Department of Environment is supposed to play the biggest role in stopping the encroachment of forest land. But they have failed to play their proper role. This has been highlighted in various reports and our research. The encroachers of forest land, regardless of their identity, must be identified and held accountable." If some legal precedents can be set here, this encroachment activity will be stopped later.'- he said.
Referring to the 'wonderful opportunity' now to prevent encroachment, Dr. Iftekharuzzaman said, 'If the interim government can set an example in recovering the forest land of Bhaluka, it will be easier to recover not only Bhaluka but also other forest lands. Because this government has nothing to fear, they have no political agenda - nothing to lose. Since the current government has no political identity, they should identify the encroachers and bring them to account.'
Regarding the encroachment of forest land in Bhaluka, Chief Conservator of Forests Md. Amir Hossain Chowdhury told Barta24.com, there are many problems with the Bhaluka property. Cases have been filed in some places. We cannot do anything if they are not resolved.
Regarding the plan to recover forest land, he said, I do not have the power to evict. This will be done by the Deputy Commissioner, District Magistrate. What we have done is to send all the proposals to the Deputy Commissioner's office to recover the forest land. The rule is that they will verify the papers, file a case, evict and return it to us.
Regarding the complexity of the eviction process, the Chief Conservator of Forests said, there are some rules and regulations for eviction. He will see whose name is on the record. I proposed eviction, but if there is a problem with the record, he will not evict again. There are many complications in land acquisition. If you file a case, it will be gone for a lifetime and it cannot be resolved.
The Bhaluka Range is under the Mymensingh Forest Division. The most fragile condition of the forest is in the Bhaluka Range. The Mallikbari bit under this range disappeared from the map long ago. Despite owning 1,599 acres of land, the Mallikbari forest bit has now become landless itself. It would not be wrong to say that it is not only landless but also homeless, because it does not even have a little place to stand on its own. The bit officer himself is a dependent in the office of another bit.
Since Bhaluka Range is located next to the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway, land is more valuable than gold. The price of one percent of land in some areas ranges from 10 to 25 lakh taka. Even renowned companies have not been left behind in grabbing land here. Giant companies like Square, Orion, Envoy, Lovelo Ice Cream, Labib Dyeing and BRAC have occupied forest land. The Forest Department has settled their liabilities by filing a case.