However, the Forest Department is giving different reasons behind deforestation in Madhupur. MD Sajjaduzzaman, divisional forest officer (DFO) of the forest department in Tangail, said the Garo settlement is at the root of deforestation.
Also, there were outsiders who destroyed the forest along with the Garos. Later, after finding no other way, social forestry was done there. However, this officer believes that the Forest Department also has some liabilities.
No matter how many excuses the forest department makes for deforestation, satellite images have made clear the evils of social forestry in Madhupur forest.
Such images emerged in a study titled 'Forest cover change analysis using remote sensing techniques in Madhupur Sal forest of Bangladesh' conducted by two researchers from Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organization (SPARSO), MA Salam and MAT Pramanik.
Research revealed that in 1973, about 10,000 hectares of land throughout the forest was covered with sal trees. In 2015 this figure was slightly above 2,500 hectares.
Meanwhile, rubber plantations, pineapple farms or invasive species of acacia trees have covered about 60 percent of the forest land.
Eugene Nokrek, president of Joynshahi Adivasi Unnayan Parishad, a human rights organization of Madhupur's local ethnic minorities, was saying that some people are increasingly reaping economic benefits from trees and cash crops planted with foreign funding. But the forest has already lost and is still losing its resources.