Impact of depletion of forest on environment: A case study of Madhupur pleistocene terrace area in district of Tangail

Abstract

Forest provides with environmental balance, bio-diversity & economic development. In Bangladesh intensive use of land and mostly forest land reduces forest area very rapidly. In the long run, Bangladesh will be losing her valuable forest resources and people in such areas almost will lose their past traditional activities. The traditional Sal forest lands are mostly misused and abused. With the increase of population and expansion of urban areas, forest land has been converted into settlement. As a result, the environment of such an area has degraded and wildlife and traditional plant species are going into extinction. The present study has been conducted in Madhupur Sal Forest by using face-to-face questionnaire administration to elicit information of people regarding depletion of forests. The questionnaire survey conducted on the basis of random sampling comprises answers to queries in the form of both open and fixed responses. The main objective of this study is to examine the causes of depletion of forest and its impact on the environment. The causes and process of depletion of forest in the study area are somewhat different from other parts of Bangladesh as this area is dominated by Adibasis. Depletion of forest by Adibasis is not much as they know how to derive benefits from the forest without destroying it. But people who are engaged in preserving this forest are to be accused, along with the local Bangalis for destroying the forest cover. Due to depletion of forest both flora and fauna are threatened by the loss of habitat. As activities of man increases, the forest becomes less dense. Following depletion of forest among the total number of flora and fauna of Madhupur Sal Forest, 75% of the species have become rare or very rare. The temperature within the forest has risen. The quantity of sand has been found to be high in the deforested fallow land and the quantity of silt and clay low and also the quantity of organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium is found to be very high in cultivated lands. The quantity of these elements is very low in timber monoculture and deforested fallow land. The above findings demonstrate the changes to the overall environment of the study area due to clearing forest. If the present trend of depletion goes on, the concerned area may, in course of time, lose its forest characteristics turn into an area of human settlement only. The author deems it a proud privilege and great pleasure to express her indebtedness, deepest sense of gratitude, sincere appreciation and profound regards to her honorable teacher and thesis supervisor Dr. Nasreen Ahmad, Professor, Department of Geography and Environment and Pro-vice-chancellor of University of Dhaka, for her kind advice, scholastic guidance, sympathetic day to day supervision, and constructive criticisms during the entire study and in the preparation of this manuscript. The author sincerely expresses her cordial respect and profound gratitude to the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist Ruhul Mohaiman Chowdhury, Climate-Resilient Ecosystems and Livelihoods (CREL) for his valuable suggestions, kind co-operation and constructive criticisms have made it possible to prepare the research paper. The author acknowledges her sincere appreciation to the library authorities of Forest Department, specially the main librarian Rezaul Haq Khan, the library authorities of Geology Department, University of Dhaka and the library of SARRSO, BBS, and SRDI. The author is very much grateful to Md. Basirul Al-Mamun, ACF of Madhupur Forest Division and to all of forest department staffs at Madhupur Forest for providing official data and cordial co-operation during the extensive field visit. The author acknowledges her sincere gratitude and appreciation to Mr.Afsar Alam, Mr. Moniruzzam and Ms. Sharmin Akhter, Scientific Officer, Soil Resource Development Institute, for valuable suggestions and cordial help to prepare soil area map. The author is puzzled to select the suitable words to express her heart squeezed gratitude, indebtedness and sincere appreciation to Mr. A. S. Assaduzzamn for his sincere technical support and co-operation provided in computer service otherwise it would not be possible to complete the word processing and other computer analysis within short period. Special thanks to all the teachers of the Department of Geography and Environment, University of Dhaka for their valuable suggestions and spontaneous inspirations during the research work. The author extends her gratitude to her parents for their total support and constant blessings. Special thanks are due to her elder sisters and younger sister for their valuable care and providing all the facilities and enthusiastic support to carry on the research. Last but not the least, the author express her cordial thanks to her friends and the inhabitants of the study area who kindly gave the author the answer of the queries, the benefit of their comments and suggestions. The author thanks almighty God the most because He blessed her by making what she is today.