4000 acres tobacco plantation perils environment & forest

An investigative report on Daily Azadi, on Dec 26, 2013 reveals that with the backings of Tobacco Companies’, tobacco is alarmingly being grown on different parts of Ramu Upazilla under Cox’sBazar district and lands for social forestation, riverbanks and even state-owned fallow lands too are being used for the cultivation. Tobacco companies inspire farmers on tobacco cultivation by providing special incentives like

loan in advance and on easy-terms, fertilizers etc. Farmers said that tobacco is being farmed on 4000 acres of lands and half of the lands belong to forest and state. Since tobacco cultivation needs chemical fertilizers, it reduces lands’ fertility to a great extent and this is a clear threat to our natural environment, and the woods needed to bake tobacco leaves is another risk for the forest lands as well. However, the district administration is silent over the issue of tobacco cultivation on the unregistered lands.