Gazipur City Corporation is building a secondary waste transfer station (STS) on three acres abutting the reserved forest boundary of Bhawal National Park. The construction, breaching the park’s boundary wall, proceeds without requisite approvals. Officials say the work violates the Forest Act of 1927 and relevant wildlife conservation law. Experts warn that situating a waste management facility so close to a protected forest exposes the park’s biodiversity to acute risk from pollution and pathogens.
Forest Department sources confirm that the city corporation began STS construction on April 11 in the Rajendrapur section of Bhawal National Park. Crews demolished a portion of the reserved forest’s boundary wall. Local forest officers, alerted to the breach, visited the site and halted activities they deemed unlawful under forest and wildlife protection laws. They subsequently dispatched multiple letters to higher authorities who are yet to take any action.
Divisional Forest Officer (current charge) MKM Iqbal Husain Chowdhury of the Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Division, Dhaka, told Bonik Barta: “GCC is building this STS by sheer force, breaking the reserve forest’s boundary pillars. They have erected a tin shed house, damaged trees, cooked food, lit fires, and excavated land for piling. All of it contravenes the Forest Act of 1927 and the Wildlife Act of 2026. We met the corporation’s chief executive officer. He said work can’t be stopped under any circumstances.”
Chowdhury added that the STS imperils the entire Bhawal National Park. “All manner of waste will arrive here. Pathogens from medical and other refuse could infect monkeys, wild boar, mongooses, and foxes — and from them jump to humans. This is merely the first step toward destroying the Bhawal National Park. Should GCC succeed, others will soon follow to grab forest land.”
An on-site inspection on Monday found two excavators operating within the Bhawal National Park boundary just off the main road near Rajendrapur Gate No. 2. Work on the STS continues. A tin shed already stands completed where workers cook their meals.
Forest Department sources put the footprint of the GCC construction at approximately three acres. The plot is privately owned and has served as farmland for many years. Under the Forest Act of 1927 and the Wildlife Act of 2026, any privately held land inside a forest boundary may be used only for agriculture. Activities that harm the forest or habitat are prohibited. The statutes further bar industrial plants or infrastructure harmful to wildlife within two kilometres of a forest’s boundary.
An STS also requires environmental clearance. Issuing such clearance for construction on forest, wetland or agricultural land contravenes environmental law. GCC is proceeding without the needed clearance and without forest department approval.
Gazipur City Corporation Chief Executive Officer Muhammad Sohel Hasan told Bonik Barta: “The site where we are building the STS is not forest land; it’s privately owned. We’ll use it on a rental basis. We shall manage it in such a way that no waste escapes onto forest land. But since the forest department has registered its objection, we’ll discuss the matter at our corporation meeting. Our next steps will follow whatever decision emerges from that meeting and from the local government and environment ministries.”
According to Forest Department records, Bhawal National Park, established in 1982, spans Gazipur Sadar and Sreepur upazilas of Gazipur district and covers 5,022 hectares. The Dhaka Wildlife and Nature Conservation Division looks after the park. More than five thousand people depend on it for their livelihoods. The forest sustains ten mammal species, six amphibians, nine reptiles and thirty-nine bird species. Around 220 tree species also grow within the park. Environmentalists and experts fear the STS construction will imperil this biodiversity.
Dr Fahmida Parvin, a professor of environmental sciences at Jahangirnagar University, told Bonik Barta: “Even temporary waste dumping leaves a footprint. Whatever forest cover remains in this country after all the destruction is what we now protect. Bhawal is a key part of that. If dumping begins here, the entire reserved forest will soon face an existential threat. Wildlife, water bodies and even groundwater will suffer. We keep repeating that our waste management is broken. Collecting household waste and piling it somewhere is not waste management. Segregation must happen at the source. That’s the first condition. If we carry on like this, the whole country will eventually drown in waste. Where will we go then?”
Those familiar with the sector note that waste management pressures in a rapidly industrialising city like Gazipur will inevitably mount. Factories, markets and dense settlements produce more refuse here than in most other urban centres. Yet urban planners contend that breaching reserved forest boundaries or converting adjacent farmland into an STS is not an acceptable solution to this crisis.
When asked, Jahangirnagar University’s urban and regional planning professor, Dr Akter Mahmud, told Bonik Barta: “There are scientific criteria for siting an STS or a dumping station. Solutions exist. We must manage waste, but we must also save the country’s forests, nature and environment. Our waste management authorities don’t coordinate with urban planning. Another problem is that the government allocates land for every other project, but doesn’t want to allocate land for waste management.”