Illegal tree-felling ruins Bangladesh's famous beach

The forest department remained "a silent spectator of the mindless tree felling", The Daily Star said Monday.

The stretch in Cox's Bazaar from Shahparir Dwip to Baharchhara of the upazila (sub-district) runs a high risk in any natural disaster like cyclone and tidal surge common in this area.
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), police and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) in joint raids Sunday recovered about 7,500 felled Jhau trees from nearby villages and arrested a man.
Cox's Bazaar sea beach, said to be the world's second longest, is a major tourism destination of Bangladesh.

Coastal forest department sources said about 500,000 Jhau trees were planted on 700 acres of sandy beach on a stretch of about 10 km in 1995 to save people living along the Teknaf coast from erosion.

In the course of 14 years, the trees became big and formed a dense forest. Thousands of Jhau trees act as a wall to save the coast during tidal surges or cyclones. But for the last few months these trees are being felled.