The importance of forest in human life is immense.Forests are playing a very important role in our lives.People and different indigenous cultures depend on forests for their livelihood.

The importance of forests is immense when it comes to harboring animals and insects,maintaining a balance of oxygen,carbon dioxide and moisture in the air and protecting freshwater reservoirs in rivers.

Bandarban Deputy Commissioner Yasmin Parveen Tibriji made the remarks as the chief guest at a discussion organized by the Forest Department on the occasion of International Forest Day in the conference room of Bandarban Deputy Commissioner on Monday (March 21).

She Added,We have to save the forest.Protecting forest resources in particular will ensure a healthy environment and healthy lifestyle for all of Us.Md.Mahmudul Hasan,Divisional Forest Officer,Pulpwood Plantation Department, Bandarban presided over the discussion.

Forest Officer Deputy Conservator of Forests Haque Mahabub Morshed,Executive Engineer of Water Development Board Arup Chakraborty, Executive Magistrate Md.Kayesur Rahman,Press Club Secretary Minarul Haque along with officials of different ranges of Forest Department and students and representatives of civil society were present.

In the discussion meeting Md.Mahmudul Hasan said,the common man should stand by the forest department as a friend of the forest department in protecting the forest.

Besides,The general public should be by the side of the forest department workers in protecting the forests.

At the meeting Haque Mahabub Morshed Called for maintaining the balance of the environment by planting more and more trees in any vacant space around the house.It is to be noted that according to the decision of the UN General Assembly, International Forest Day has been observed in Bangladesh like all over the world on 21st March every year since 2012 to create awareness about forest.

This year’s theme was “Commitment to Forest Conservation, Sustainable Production and Use”. Meanwhile,a report of the Forest Department of Bangladesh in 2019 stated that the amount of forest covered area in Bangladesh is 12.8 percent of the total land.Earlier,According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO),it was 10.9 percent.

As such,the trees outside the forest were not taken into account.But a new study by the forest department says that the amount of trees outside the forest is 9.7 percent of the total land.Most of these trees have grown mainly through social forestry.As such, the area covered by trees inside and outside the forest is 22.5 percent of the total land.