Vicious network of Foresticides!

- By Krishna Murari Bhandari

The journey to Ilam, Jhapa and Morang this year will remain in my memory for ever. We trekked the community forest conserved by the general people. It rained cats and dogs and we were drenched spine-deep. We risked our lives and entered the roaring river neglecting the hazard of drowning. We viewed the beautiful tea garden and also saw wild elephant. We had the rare opportunity of drinking whey prepared in „theki‟ (wooden vessel used to extract out the fat of the curd to prepare whey).We relished on milk boiled with firewood and thick curd curdled over night. Moreover, the taste of fresh ghee prepared instantly while extracting fat from curd, fried dumplings made of gram flour with onion seasoning, local chicken, fish and fresh vegetables were never to be forgotten. Banana, pear and mangoes with pleasant fragrance made us forget our tiresome journey.

We had been to the Terai, Bhawar and Chure area of eastern Nepal. We visited people and also observed the activities of the farmers during the rainy months of Ashadh and Shrawan. During the two weeks long travel around that area, the habitual statement of the two Khatiwada brothers named Chhabilal and Ghanashyam, the second and the fourth ones respectively among the seven sons of their father, made a room in my heart and channeled through my vocal cord too. They repeated every now and then that there is a vast difference between the nod of the girl‟s father and the assent statement urged by others while fixing a marriage. They meant that the news which is published or broadcast after enquiries and studies made by a journalist has quite a different impact among the public. To clarify this, they had cited the example of the authenticity of the consent given by the father of a prospective bride over the mere uttering of other people while accepting a marriage proposal. Our visit to these three districts corroborated this statement as we witnessed a sea difference between what we had constantly heard or read and what we had actually seen. Indeed there seemed to be a difference between rhetoric and reality about the deforestation and conservation of forest. There are mainly two events most disputed in Jhapa about cutting down forest trees. One of these is about the uniform cutting down of trees in the Sal forest of Kakarbhitta while the next one is about the heap of logs in Bahundangi, Tiring of Jhapa piled up after cutting down of Sal trees at Jirmale, Pratapur of Ilam. Both of these issues are not related to community forest. These are the cases where there is direct involvement of the Minister of forest Deepak Bohara and the forest department. Though it cannot be denied that there are problems related to community forest, the nature of problems in such forest is different. In case of community forest, there exists a kind of forgery by the Minister of Forest, employees of forest department, businessmen trading wood, a few cunning officials who lead the consumer groups of community forest. There is no case of deforestation by direct cutting down of forest trees but one has to admit that there are cases of fraudulent manipulation of documents by those mentioned above together with the forest staff.

These days the forest officers and their favorite employees are taking leave from office for the obvious reason of their lost interest in the job at forest office as a result of the ban imposed by the government on the transaction and transport of wood from the forest. For them, the job at forest office basically means cutting down the trees and transporting them. It is but natural for them to lose interest in the job after the ban.Consequently, in every forest office, barring a few exceptions, the employees who attended the office are found taking a nap lousily.

The silence of a graveyard observed in forest offices is not worthy of being seen but also of being kept in record. It showcases the evidence of the interest of forest employees resting only in the fraudulent manipulation of forest wood. If it were otherwise, they would have taken an interest in the chores to be completed during rainy season. One need not search the evidence all around. One can just remember the activities of Mr. Deepak Bohara, Minister of Forest in the same season last year. The reason behind his over activeness was the grand conference of Copenhagen and the budget associated with it. But he seems quite silent this year and has stopped barking about afforestation and forest conservation. He has acquired the title of “the foresticide” for himself by indulging in massive deforestation. Moreover he has busied himself in a grand design of denying the rights to the people who have made the barren hills of the country greener by planting trees. Though he is the minister of a de facto cabinet which has already resigned, Bohara has shaken hands with the tradesmen involved in deforestation and the corrupt souls who are cutting down trees and seizing the rights of community forests.

Contrary to all these, the community forest groups who are uplifting the image of our country in the world by conserving forests and the leaders of such groups are emerging with brand new ideas. We even got the opportunity of having tete-a-tete with the people having such new ideas. One of such community forest groups, „Panchpokhari Community Forest‟ at Shantinagar VDC had organized an interaction program on „the possibility of tourism development in Jhapa‟. While listening to the ideas of the participants, we felt that their views were immensely mature and progressive. They cherish a desire of converting Jhapa into a tourist destination by utilizing the natural, religious and historical heritage of their place. They are putting their every effort into creating employment opportunities in their own country for the youngsters willing to go abroad.

People were pleasantly surprised when the former chief of Panchpokhari Community Forest Mr. Ghanshyam Khatiwada revealed the possibilities of works that could be done in their place. He urged that they were planning to revive the Panchpokhari Lake by constructing a dam and make the provision of boating in the Lake. They would introduce the „Elephant Ahal‟ in the place where the wild elephants playfully enjoy their stay in water and establish the place as a destination for adventure loving tourists. Moreover, he reminded that Mahananda Sapkota Road, named after the renowned linguist of Jhapa, travelled through the same forest. We could extend the road up to his birthplace Divan Chhap of Ilam where his monument and garden are situated. This would guide the tourists to Divan Chhap from where they could view the big city of West Bengal together with the green fields, river and springs, forests, towns and villages of Nepal. Further, we can guide the tourists through all the natural beauty of mountain ranges, river, spring and greeneries to such a lofty place from where they can bungee-jump in the Timai River. This adventurous game is not operated from other places in Nepal except for Bhotekoshi. Even in places like Darjeeling and Sikkim, there is no provision of bungee-jumping. We want this game to be the centre of attraction for all the tourists visiting Jhapa district. Finally he ended his address by informing the participants about the distance between the place of operating bungee-jumping and Dhulabari being only twelve to thirteen kilometers and also added that there already exists bus service from Dhulabari to that place.

After that many others including journalists, litterateurs, tourism entrepreneurs and politicians addressed the interaction. All of them talked about the development of Jhapa focusing on its specialties. They spoke about the existing religious and tourist destinations of Jhapa like Kichakbadh, Kechna Kawal, gauradaha, Satasidham, Kankai Domukha, Dhanushkotidham, Northern Ganga, and the tea gardens. Mr. Hari Narayan chaudhary, Chief of Panchpokhari Community Forest, seemed quite assured of the success of their plans.

Mr. Bhakti Sitaula, a pro development activist politician read out his presentation about the tourism in Jhapa. Then spoke Mr. Kedar Giri who had converted the marshy area of Jamunkhadi Community Forest into an exemplary garden of Jhapa and had employed many local people in the Forest. He explained how Jamunkhadi was formed and developed to its present state.

The guest of honour of the program was Mr. Chandra Bhandari, senior journalist. He disseminated enthusiasm and motivation among the participants by spelling out the peculiarities and good qualities of Jhapa. The others to talk about the possibility of tourism development in Jhapa were Mr. Lekh Nath Pokhrel, Associate Chief District officer, Mr. Jivan Sitaula, Local Development Officer, Mr. Netra Karki representing Travel Association, Mr. Chhabilal Khatiwada, entrepreneur, Mr. Chhatra Poudel, Chairperson of Federation of Community Forest Users, Nepal district chapter Jhapa, Mr. Tej Raj Khatiwada, litterateur, and Mr. Tara Somyang, former Member of Parliament. The program nominated Mr. Kedar Giri as the chief of Jhapa Tourism Development Committee and Mr. Ghanashyam Khatiwada as its Secretary.

The different aspects of the waning government forests and the waxing community forests in Jhapa have been a matter of concern for everyone these days. As is the fact, curiosity gives rise to several questions. How are the Sal trees of remote villages eyed upon by the Minister of forest? Why are they subjected to fraud? But people related to this field of forestry can easily answer these questions. According to them, no matter what may be the reason, the ultimate victims to suffer are the trees which are mercilessly cut down. The forest staffs and the forest mafia set their eyes upon good trees, concoct malicious plans and find out a reason to cut down the trees. For instance, let‟s analyze the case of destruction of Sal forest of Kakarbhitta. There were only twenty two trees in that forest. Immense efforts were made to destroy those trees during the tenure of district forest officers Mr. Shyam Sharma and Mr. Hem Aryal but all in vain. The DFO were not ready to destruct the forest. However, the present Minister of Forest could not spare even a small forest composed of only twenty two trees. For fulfilling his malicious purposes, he has employed a matching set of Forest Secretary, Director General and District Forest Officer who are very loyal to him, assist him in all of the fraudulent cases and have gained expertise in mercenary acts like acquiring wealth using unfair means and bribing others. One cannot even guess what reason might they have shown to cut down the trees. Actually they have claimed the land to be private rather than public and have demanded a right to destruct the trees planted there. DFO Sudhir Koirala gave his assent for the purpose obeying the illegal instruction of his boss. But How can so many trees be slaughtered citing the land to be private? Of course, there is a legal provision of allowing cutting down a couple of trees on private land. But here the same law has deliberately been misinterpreted by mercenary traders to destroy so many trees.

There are several such cases of deforestation at Jhapa. One of such events much disputed over has left everyone astonished and has made them wonder over a situation where in the protector emerges as the destructor. But the youngsters of Bahundangi, Jhapa, after the local newspaper exposed the government‟s involvement in a fraud case of forest destruction, have devoted themselves in keeping the illegally produced wood in their own district.

Actually this wood does not belong to Jhapa district. The cunning frauds found their point of bargain in this fact. They managed the wood to be taken somewhere outside Ilam via Jhapa. For this plan of their‟s to succeed, they made Timber Corporation Nepal (TCN) their scapegoat. The TCN is one such government Corporation which is on the verge of bankruptcy and is unable to pay its employees for their service regularly even after selling its furniture, curtains, windows and doors. The reason behind TCN being the choice of the vicious people is that this corporation sells wood at the rate of Rs. 250 per cubic feet. As per the plan of the vicious circle, the Minister, on behalf of the government, decided to sell 45000 cubic feet to TCN. So carefully was this decision taken that nobody could blame the Minister for this sale and nowhere could he be suspected or accused directly of receiving bribe while selling wood to a government owned corporation.

The covert intentions behind this plan are inspired by one of the provisions of TCN wherein it is not bound to sell to the public through its depot the wood bought with the government. TCN invites quotation and sells the tree as a whole to tradesmen in a manner similar to that of a broker selling the same land to more than three people after receiving advance from a different person. The trend of making millions of illegal money out of the wood transaction is not new, its history dates back to the era of Panchyat System which existed some decades ago in the country. Former product of the same system Mr. Bohara is the quintessence of such a practice.

Yet another case can be analyzed to make the matter clear. After TCN received the license from the ministry of forest to acquire 45000 cubic feet of wood at the rate of Rs. 250 per cubic feet, it invited quotation from tradesmen so as to sell the wood. Actually the tender had to be invited from Pratapur of Ilam district but they chose to adopt a very different method for it so that they could sell the wood to a person of their own block. Therefore, instead of inviting the tender from Pratapur, they hoisted a red flag at that place and spread the rumor of the area being captured by the Maoists for organizing a program. Citing this reason, they proved the impossibility of the invitation of the tender from such a place. They prepared all necessary documents at TCN, Biratnagar. The tender was thus declared to have been granted to Mr. Sita Ram Agrawal. He bought the wood at a rate of Rs. 643 per cubic feet. After deducting the amount paid by TCN to the government as revenue, the profit as shown by it to the government amounted near to Rs. 400 per cubic feet. But the market value of the wood at Kathmandu is nearly Rs. 4000 per cubic feet. The transportation and other cost per cubic feet of wood, let‟s say, would amount to Rs. 150 per unit. The maximum cost per unit of wood would thus amount to Rs. 800. Dear readers, now take out your calculators, do not rely upon your pen for calculating such a large amount. Four thousand minus eight hundred equals thirty two hundred. If the profit per cubic feet of wood amounts to thirty two hundred, how much profit is made after selling forty five thousand cubic feet of it? You will have to multiply those two figures. In other words, thirty two hundred multiplied by forty five thousand equals…….Can you predict, dear readers, how much money befalls as a share to each of the ones involved in the scheme viz. Prime Minister, Home Minister, Police, Finance Minister, Finance Secretary, Director General and many more. How much, as per your calculation, did each of them get? But I have heard that this allocation is also done based on a typical rule which is unknown to you and me. This time I am in need to know about the same rule.