Hope rekindled for a dying forest By Faizul Khan Tanim
Hope rekindled for a dying forest Faizul Khan Tanim visits Lawachara forest which is returning from the brink of destruction through conservation efforts undertake by the forest department and funded by the USAID photos by Sirajul Hossain The thing that hits you when walking through Lawachara National Park, just outside Srimangal town in Sylhet, is the overpowering scent of pure greenness. At dawn, the forest glows as if the sun were involved in a wild love affair with the leaves. It is hard to believe that Lawachara is less beautiful now than it was for the first person who ever walked there. Ants march, birds chirp, wildcats prowl and apes dance through the trees, almost as if they had been choreographed for a Disney animation. Decades of destructive management policies of the Bangladesh Forest Department has meant that the Hoolock Gibbon—Bangladesh’s lone ape species that was once abundant in Lawachara—has seen its natural habitat shrink to the point edge of final destruction. The ...
