Corruption unearthed in Tk 1,500 crore ‘SUFOL’ project

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has uncovered evidence of large-scale corruption in the Forest Department’s Tk 1,500-crore “Sustainable Forests and Livelihoods (SUFOL)” project. Investigators have seized documents exposing embezzlement, fund withdrawals using fake papers, transfer trading, and other irregularities across multiple levels of the project’s operations. The ACC stated that it will take legal action against those involved after thoroughly analyzing the collected documents.

Launched in 2018, the SUFOL project aimed to expand forest coverage to 25 percent of Bangladesh’s land area—considered essential for maintaining ecological balance. Implemented under the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, the Tk 1,502-crore project was the largest of its kind. However, irregularities reportedly took place in almost every stage of fieldwork.

Officials allegedly embezzled thousands of crores by showing fake work records under the SUFOL project, other afforestation programs, and revenue-funded allocations. Additionally, hundreds of crores were siphoned off through a syndicate-driven transfer-and-posting racket.

According to ACC sources, the Awami League government approved the SUFOL project in 2018 for sustainable forest development, with a timeline from July 2018 to June 2023. Despite the project’s completion date having passed, most of its planned work remains unfinished.

For instance, in the last two fiscal years, the project planned to establish 872 hectares of nurseries and afforestation, but a significant portion of this work was never completed. In several areas, only a few saplings were planted to demarcate boundaries rather than for genuine afforestation.

In the Joarianala Beat area of Ramu Upazila, Tk allocations were made in FY 2022–23 for creating 510 hectares of new plantations—but only 160 hectares were actually planted. Similar discrepancies were found in the 362-hectare plantation planned for FY 2023–24, with most of the allocated funds reportedly misappropriated by Forest Department officials and their associates without any real work being done.

ACC Deputy Director (Public Relations) Md. Akhtarul Islam confirmed that the commission conducted a raid on February 24 at the Forest Department office following complaints of corruption in the project. “The ACC team has already submitted its report, and based on that, the Commission will proceed with the next legal steps,” he said.

Forest Department records claim that 103,960 hectares of land were brought under afforestation through SUFOL—20,136 hectares in Cox’s Bazar and 83,824 hectares across 23 other districts. The reported distribution includes:

• Dhaka Forest Division: 2,810 ha

• Chattogram North Forest Division: 9,273 ha

• Chattogram South Forest Division: 8,670 ha

• Chattogram Division: 9,210 ha

• Bhola: 8,420 ha

• Patuakhali: 8,320 ha

• Social Forest Division, Rajshahi: 177 ha

• Dinajpur: 2,030 ha

• Wildlife Management & Nature Conservation, Moulvibazar: 290 ha

• Wildlife Management & Nature Conservation, Chattogram: 2,620 ha

• Cox’s Bazar North Forest Division: 8,468 ha

• Cox’s Bazar South Forest Division: 11,668 ha

• Mymensingh: 4,443 ha

• Tangail: 2,713 ha

• Coastal Forest Division, Noakhali: 19,990 ha (the highest)

• Sylhet Forest Division: 4,648 ha

• Wildlife Management & Nature Conservation, Dhaka Division: 205 ha

However, an on-site investigation by the ACC in the Rangtia Range area near the Nakshi border outpost in Sherpur painted a very different picture. Only one Chapalish tree was found to have survived in the so-called plantation zone. While some other trees were visible, there were no traces of wild elephant damage—indicating that no real plantation work had taken place despite large sums being spent.