The highway that cuts through Rohingya and Rakhine’s farmland in the south and northern areas of the state, follows the route of an old road built by the British during the World War-II. Locals expect more than 30 acres of winter seasonal farmland to be also destroyed to make room for the road.

Villagers have offered to help the army by providing them with wood from a nearby forest but the army wants them to cut down their orchids. Many of the mango, orange and lemon trees were planted about 5 or 10 years ago with the help of the CARE international aid group.

On Jan. 17, twenty-acres of a mango orchid owned by Molvi Ismail, from Kilai Daung village, in Maungdaw east, was destroyed by Rakhine villagers who needed wood for baking bricks for the road construction. One villager said there plenty of other trees they could have taken from the nearby mountain.

In Gudu Sara village, 50 acres of a 200 acres orchid were cut down by Rakhine villagers who had allegedly re-settled from Bangladesh recently,  according to a businessman  who didn’t want their name used.

So far the army hasn’t been using forced labour in the construction of the new highway.