Tarikur Rahman, the range officer of Mirsarai Korerhat under the Chattogram North Forest Division, is currently living a miserable life.
He was once a terror to forest grabbers and hill cutters. In the area under his responsibility, illegal people never had a chance to operate.
However, his honesty and professionalism turned into his misfortune. For the past six months, he has been lying on hospital beds and corridors after being hit by a dumper truck owned by forest plunderers.
The treatment has already cost him nearly 9.5 lakh taka. To recover completely, he still needs another 5 to 6 lakh taka. He has already spent all his savings, sold his wife’s jewelry, and taken loans to bear the medical expenses. Yet, the department he risked his life for has not provided even the minimum support. With his ailing mother, two children, and wife, the range officer is now living a harsh and miserable life in a rented house in Chattogram city. His ancestral home is in Lakshmipur district.
It is known that on January 15 at around 9 PM, a team went on an operation in the Jheeltoli area of the Ramgarh–Sitakunda Reserve Forest under the Korerhat Beat cum Check Station within Korerhat Range to stop illegal sand extraction and trafficking from government reserved forest land. Acting on a tip-off, Assistant Forest Conservator Md. Mahdi Hasan (then undergoing training in the range), Range Officer Tarikur Rahman, and accompanying force participated in the operation. During the operation, while a dumper truck was illegally carrying sand after cutting a hill, Range Officer Tarikur signaled the vehicle to stop. Ignoring the signal, the driver intentionally ran over him, causing serious injuries. The left femur (thigh bone) of his leg was severely fractured.
In this incident, Station Officer Motayeen Hossain filed a case accusing two individuals. The case number is POR 33KBS/118/K24-25. The accused are Nuruddin (48), son of Md. Mostafa from Koila village, and Abdul (33), son of Ruhul Amin from Paschim Sonai village, both of whom are from Korerhat Union in Mirsarai. Among them, Nuruddin has been arrested, but the other accused remains at large.
It is mentioned that cutting hills and extracting sand from reserved forest areas is a punishable offense under Section 26(1Ka) of the Forest Act of 1927 (amended in 2000).
Regarding this, Range Officer Tarikur Rahman said, “I rejoined work with a broken leg on June 18. The Employee Welfare Fund provides a maximum assistance of up to 2 lakh taka. I have applied for help, but have not received any support yet. I am worried about how I will manage the further treatment expenses.”
Assistant Forest Conservator of Chattogram North Forest Division, Harunur Rashid, said, “It is truly unfortunate that a range officer was injured so badly while performing his duty for the forest department. Incidents like this are frequent at the field level, and there are life-threatening risks as well.”
