Madhupur rainforest, in north-west Bangladesh, is a place overflowing with natural beauty. Between the towering sal trees, wild green waves of edible and medicinal plants flourish. In the uppermost branches, monkeys play and the songs of brightly coloured birds fill the air.
To the indigenous Garo people who live here, this forest is more than a home. In the Garo language the name for it is A’bima – ‘Mother Earth’. Like a mother, the rainforest has provided them with everything they need. They in turn have taken care to preserve and nurture the forest, in all its natural splendour – they take only what they need to survive, respecting the delicate balance of the local ecosystem.
But it is, in part, because of the natural beauty of the rainforest that the people of Madhupur now find their home, and their very existence, at risk. Plans for an Eco Park – a nature resort for wealthy tourists to visit – threaten to force the Garo people from their land. Land they have lived on for centuries. The land of their ancestors.
Fearless and determined Garo women and men are standing up to this injustice and saying no – this is our home – you cannot force us out or pretend we do not exist. We are here. We’ve always been here. We’re staying.
And by supporting Hands On, you will join the Garo community in their fight. This page will be continuously updated with stories of bravery, images and videos that show the beauty of nature (and why it’s at risk), recordings of traditional poems and songs, and testimony to the power of marginalised communities standing in solidarity for the good of all.
Thank you for joining the journey.
A walk in the rainforest
January 2024
In this first update we take a walk with Polanto, a Garo village leader, as he shows us around his rainforest home and warns of the threats his community face.
“I enjoy living in the forest because my forefathers lived here,” Polanto says, as he strides confidently through the tangled undergrowth. “When I hear the birds singing, I feel fresh, fresh in my mind and in my heart.”
Polanto is the village leader – or Songnokma in the Garo language - of one of the many indigenous villages of Madhupur. He is relatively young to hold a position of such responsibility, but no less determined to do whatever he must to ensure the future of his community.
“I am a guardian of the community,” he says. “They honoured me with that. When any family or person is in trouble, then, as a chief, I go to them first to help. Of course, it is a stressful job, but it is my duty to serve the people.”
Polanto walks on through the jungle behind his home. He stops frequently to point out wild plants and mushrooms – here is one that can be used as medicine, another that is a favourite flavour in curries, yet more that are extremely nutritious or rich in vitamins. Each time, after describing the uses of each leaf, bud or berry, he sighs. All these valuable plants are becoming scarcer and scarcer.
Soon, it is easy to see why. The native sal trees - all different heights, branches bending off in all directions sheltering a huge variety of smaller plants - suddenly disappear. In their place, row upon row of straight, grey, branchless trunks, every one near identical in height. Eucalyptus – a cash crop planted in swathes on land that was once home to thriving natural rainforest.
“This type of tree destroys the environment and destroys the fertility of soil because eucalyptus trees consume huge amounts of water from the soil,” Polanto explains. “Because this type of tree grows fast, they get a lot of money in a short time – that’s why people want to plant these trees. When this type of plant is grown, they auction the trees and sell them, then cut them. There is a natural jungle here and they cut this jungle, these trees, and then plant the eucalyptus trees. Of course, this type of activity destroys the animals, birds and other creatures.”
He passes the eucalyptus plantation and another grove of native foliage, and finally reaches his destination. A clearing in the forest lets sunlight shine down on a river of vivid green shoots. This is the community’s rice paddy, where they have traditionally planted their staple food crop together.
If the Eco Park project is completed as planned, this area will be flooded to create a lake for tourists to swim in and relax by. The community have already faced threats while planting their crops.
But Polanto and his community have no plans to back down.
“I use this slogan: ‘Our land, our mother.’ My land is my mother, I won’t let it go. Our mothers, our forefathers, our fathers have died here, so this land is ours.”
How your support is helping Polanto’s community
“I’d like to say thanks to the staff of Caritas and other organisations. They sacrifice their lives to serve the community people. In bad situations and good situations, always Caritas is with us.”
The people of Madhupur are not alone. Your Hands On donations will help support local experts from Caritas Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) as they work closely with the community.
One of those experts is Brilliant Chiran – a member of the Garo community who works for Caritas.
Finding strength
The sunny courtyard of Polanto’s family home buzzes with activity as he returns, his children racing out to greet him. He smiles warmly as his son tells him about the time he saw a wildcat, and how scary its roar was.
Sitting on his porch in the afternoon sun with his wife, Liya, Polanto seems calm, and less serious than before. He no longer has to be the brave, authoritative leader, but simply a loving father and husband – if only for a moment.
“If you want a happy family, you must divide responsibility,” he says, “work, farming, domestic work. I have a good relationship with my wife. We are best friends. I feel very lucky to have such a strong bond.
“When I feel stress, I get help from my wife. She says: ‘I am with you. Don’t be worried.’ This is my coping mechanism. I get strength from my wife.”
Liya laughs when he says this, and replies: “He encourages me too. When my husband wants to do something, I tell him, no problem, I am with you, you can do it. I’m always with you. He is always supporting me too.”
The sun sets over Liya and Polanto’s home – but not on their fight for justice.
A threat at the rice field
May 2024
In this update, you will see more of the dangers the people of Madhupur face. Hear Kowshola, a farmer and a grandmother, tell us how she and her neighbours stood strong when they were threatened just for planting rice on their land.
Warning: The following video contains weapons and threats of violence. Some viewers may find this content disturbing.
A threat at the rice field
May 2024
In this update, you will see more of the dangers the people of Madhupur face. Hear Kowshola, a farmer and a grandmother, tell us how she and her neighbours stood strong when they were threatened just for planting rice on their land.
Warning: The following video contains weapons and threats of violence. Some viewers may find this content disturbing.
How to prove your existence
You may be thinking: surely it must be illegal to claim someone else’s rice field and flood it – and to threaten them when they try to return.
In most cases, you’d be right. But what if the other person doesn’t exist? Or rather, what if they don’t have the correct paperwork to prove they exist?
The Garo people have lived in Madhupur for centuries, since long before legal documents were needed to prove their right to the land.
So, when powerful groups with interests in the land began to claim parts of the Madhupur rainforest, the community had no formal paperwork to prove the land was theirs. Even worse, there have been repeated attempts to deny that there are people even living here at all – to claim the Garo communities don’t exist.
“The project aims to support the Garo community in finding hope through asserting their rights to indigenous land, and enabling this through establishing legal and documented tenure of land. It is so important to the Garo people to have security and certainty. This will enable them to live full and flourishing lives and also to give future generations firm foundations to build their lives on.” Philip Talman, CAFOD’s Bangladesh Programme Officer
“Caritas gave us the chance to demarcate our land using digital land mapping technology. This was a good thing,” says Eugin Nokrek, president of Joyenshahi Adibashi Unnayan Parishad, an important council of the indigenous populations of Madhupur. “We measured the size of the land, the distance, the longitude and the latitude, and we have submitted these maps digitally and in hard copies. Our main demand is people should get their traditional land recognised legally.”
Next time…
This story will be regularly updated as your Hands On gifts help the community in their fight for their land. Join us again for the next update in September when you will:
- Discover the power of Garo music
- Hear from young Garo musicians
- Follow Wilson on his journey through the forest
Built with Shorthand