The police in Ea Kar District said they had launched an investigation into the deforestation case in the border forest in Ea Kar, Krong Bong and M'Drak districts.

Le Dinh Chien, vice chairman of Ea Kar District People's Committee said they had set up an interdepartmental team to inspect and trace the violators. They will set up two checkpoints in Cu Bong Commune which is the border commune with M'Drak District and in Cu Elang which is the border commune with Krong Bong District.

On May 25, the authorities in Ea Kar and Krong Bong held a meeting with the provincial Forest Protection Department to discuss the serious deforestation problem in several forest lands under the management of Ea Kar Forestry Company, Krong Bong Forestry Company and Cu Pui People's Committee.

Statistics from Ea Kar Forestry Company showed that since the 2019-2020 dry season, the trees on over 30ha of forest land have been cut off or burnt down. From February 2 to May, the company reported a total of 18 deforestation cases and 46ha of destroyed forest land. Krong Bong also reported 8ha of forest land being destroyed.

The forest was destroyed by the locals for agricultural land. The representatives of the households in Ea Rot Village, Cu Pui Commune, admitted at the meeting that not only did they destroy the forest, but also many people from other areas also came there. There are some people from HCM City wanted to buy a large area of land to build a farm.

The district authorities have asked the locals to immediately stop all deforestation activities, saying that they will have afforestation programmes for the destroyed areas. Dtinews/VOV