The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has razed nine hills in Chattogram's Ramgarh–Sitakunda reserve forest area to expand a road without obtaining permission from the authorities.

The hill cutting, which began in May 2023, has flattened hilltops and removed around 10.14 lakh cubic feet of soil.

"The project authority only received approval for the Terms of Reference (ToR) to prepare the Environmental Impact Assessment report but went ahead with hill cutting and construction in violation of the law," said Jamir Uddin, director of the Department of Environment's Chattogram regional office.

The large-scale hill razing comes several months after the Forest Department estimated that around 4,630 mature trees would have to be felled and about 15,500 saplings relocated from the Ramgarh-Sitakunda Reserve Forest for the project. The RHD also took 90 acres of reserve forest land to expand the road.

According to project documents, the 38-kilometre road from Baraiyarhat to Ramgarh is being widened from 18 feet to 38 feet, along with the construction of nine bridges and 24 culverts, at a cost of Tk 1,107 crore.

Project officials said the expansion, scheduled for completion by December 2025, aims to ease the transport of goods from Chattogram port to India via the newly inaugurated Ramgarh land port in Khagrachhari.

The Ramgarh-Sitakunda reserve forest is home to 25 species of mammals, 123 species of birds, eight species of reptiles, and 25 species of trees, according to the Forest Department.

The project authority only received approval for the Terms of Reference (ToR) to prepare the Environmental Impact Assessment report but went ahead with hill cutting and construction in violation of the law.

The project authority received ToR approval from the DoE on April 28, 2022, and applied for the EIA on December 3, 2024. However, without completing the EIA, 40 percent works of the project had already been carried out, according to an internal report by the DoE's Chattogram office.

When asked why the hills were cut without permission, project director and RHD Chattogram's superintendent engineer Zahid Hossain avoided a direct answer, saying, "We were forced to raze the hills to expand the road. We have received a notice from the Department of Environment. A hearing has already been held, and we are responding to their queries."

A recent visit by this correspondent found hills being cut at more than 10 points from Baraiyarhat to Heyanko, with ongoing construction in six of those locations.

Kamal Hossain, a supernumerary professor at the Institute of Forestry and Environmental Science at Chittagong University, said, "The unregulated cutting of hills severely destabilises the soil and disrupts the forest's natural drainage and microhabitats, putting the Ramgarh-Sitakunda Reserve Forest ecosystem at serious risk."

Cutting hills without permission violates Sections 6(a) and 12 of the Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act, 1995.

The DoE report recommended filing cases and seeking environmental compensation against the project authority and the contractor for violating environmental laws. The report, submitted in April, noted that six of the hills were razed largely in the Gheramara area.

DoE Director Jamir Uddin said a hearing had already been held regarding the hill cutting.

"RHD has disagreed with us on some points, so we have decided to conduct another field visit. However, there is no doubt that the road was built by cutting hills without permission. Once all procedures are complete, we will take action against those responsible according to the law," he said.