**5.3.3 Conflict on forest use and indigenous livelihoods**

The CHTs are mostly a forested region and the ownership of the forest land lie with District Administration for land and forest management rights lie with Forest Department. Despite of regulatory forest management practices in the CHTs, the forest and forest resources have been depleted greatly over time. Currently, most of the hills are denuded and degraded. Forest Department complains that the indigenous people and their illegal occupancies in the Government forests, illegal logging and their shifting cultivation are the main causes for depletion of forest resources in the CHTs. On the other hand, the respondents (100%) opinion and the result of the group discussion identified that the systemized corruption of the Forest Department, District administration, military administration and associated ministries and political elites, syndicated illegal logging of the timber merchants, poor transit rules, Jhoot6 permit, inappropriate forest management systems (clear felling in the natural forests followed by artificial regeneration mostly with fast growing exotic species like, *Acacia auriculiformes* and *Eucalyptus camaldulensis*), etc. are the major reasons for forest depletion in this region (Table 4). Qualitative assessment indicates that systemized corruption and syndicated illegal felling by the timber merchants are the major causes of the forest depletion.

From the focus group discussion, it was found that the indigenous people are frequently harassed with false police case against land encroachment and illegal timber cutting. Most of

<sup>6</sup> Jhoot means private land. Jhoot permit is the transit rule of the Forest Department which is issued by the Forest Department with necessary approval of the Deputy Commissioner for harvesting, sale and movement of the timber produced in the privately owned land.

mixed land or 1 ha of wet rice land (Chowdhury, 2002). A study of Bangladesh Society for the Enforcement of Human Rights (BSEHR) found that about 61.44% of the indigenous people still face discrimination, 41.86% are victims of corruption and 18.67% have been evicted from their ancestors land (Zaman, 2003). Land and forests are the very basis of life for the Jumma people, so plundering of land is the question of their existence. Respondents (100%) opined that when the newly settled families cannot make a living from their allocated land, they encroach on Jumma owned land. They adopted various ways to occupy the Jumma land and still now the Jumma people are being dispossessed from their own

**Sl. Pattern of land grabbing Actor (s)** 

3 Expulsion in the name of forest

6 Expulsion through false cases, harassment & other tactics

Table 3. Patterns of dispossession of Jumma land in the CHTs

**5.3.3 Conflict on forest use and indigenous livelihoods** 

movement of the timber produced in the privately owned land.

4 Leases of land by the local administration

protection

1 Expansion of military facilities Mostly led by the military 2 Expansion of settlements Mostly led by the military

5 Attacks Bengali migrants with direct or

The CHTs are mostly a forested region and the ownership of the forest land lie with District Administration for land and forest management rights lie with Forest Department. Despite of regulatory forest management practices in the CHTs, the forest and forest resources have been depleted greatly over time. Currently, most of the hills are denuded and degraded. Forest Department complains that the indigenous people and their illegal occupancies in the Government forests, illegal logging and their shifting cultivation are the main causes for depletion of forest resources in the CHTs. On the other hand, the respondents (100%) opinion and the result of the group discussion identified that the systemized corruption of the Forest Department, District administration, military administration and associated ministries and political elites, syndicated illegal logging of the timber merchants, poor transit rules, Jhoot6 permit, inappropriate forest management systems (clear felling in the natural forests followed by artificial regeneration mostly with fast growing exotic species like, *Acacia auriculiformes* and *Eucalyptus camaldulensis*), etc. are the major reasons for forest depletion in this region (Table 4). Qualitative assessment indicates that systemized corruption and syndicated illegal felling by the timber merchants are the major causes of the

From the focus group discussion, it was found that the indigenous people are frequently harassed with false police case against land encroachment and illegal timber cutting. Most of

6 Jhoot means private land. Jhoot permit is the transit rule of the Forest Department which is issued by the Forest Department with necessary approval of the Deputy Commissioner for harvesting, sale and

Forest Department or local

Forest Department or local

indirect support of the military

Bengali migrants with direct or indirect support of the military

administration

administration

lands (Table 3).

forest depletion.

the respondents know about the participatory benefit sharing social forestry programs of Forest Department. But they are discriminated to become stakeholders (nine out of the total one hundred two interviewees became the participants). However, the migrated *Bangalis* living in the areas are getting the benefit of such program. Additionally, it was found that most of the saw mills, furniture shops and small scale wood based industries in the CHTs are owned by the non-indigenous migrated population (93%in Ranagamati, 95%in Bandarbans and 94%in Khagrachari).


\* n=90 (respondents) + 12 (key informants) =102; the figures in the parentheses indicate percentage (%) \*\* a scale of magnitude from 1-5 indicating 1=very low, 2= low, 3= moderate, 4=high, 5=extreme \*\*\* Inappropriate forest management refers to clear felling followed by artificial regeneration with fast growing species like, *Eucalyptus camaldulensis*, *Acacia auriculiformes*

Table 4. Major causes of forest depletion in the CHTs
