ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 shows how the Forest Department of Bangladesh attempts to include forest dwellers in joint forest management through community forestry in Madhupur Forest. Alongside this, the Department files a very high number of forest cases against forest dwellers, accusing them of forest offenses such as tree felling. The chapter analyses these forest cases against the backdrop of the community forestry programmes. While community forestry seems to accept the presence of forest dwellers, the excessive enforcement of the Forest Act reveals that ‘the state’ has never really abandoned the idea of a forest without people. While inhabitants in Madhupur mock the different developmental programmes, the injustice of the forest cases induces aakrosh – a combination of wrath and revenge – among them.
