The rural people depend largely on homestead forestry for their fuel, energy and house building materials (Alam et al. 1988). Deforestation of this homestead forstry have been causing severe environmental degradation and poor yield of crops, livestock, fisheries, etc. (Haq 1986).
Considering these facts, the present study was conducted to find out the perception of the farmers regarding the impact of homestead
afforestation and deforestation on environmental upgradation and degradation respectively. The Salna village under Kaultia Union which is adjacent to the national forest area of Gazipur district was selected for thisstudy. Out of 378 farmers 100 were selected randomly as sample. Data were collected through personal interview, using a semi-structured interview schedule during October24 toNovember23,1996. The trend of plant population was measured by considering 1975 as the baseline year and then the change was shown after 10 years (1985), 5 years (1990), 5 years (1995) and the study year which is 1996. The 5 years gap was used for two times because it was assumed that the awareness programme regarding deforestation wasstrengthened from that time. The number of tree during the past period was measured on the basis of number mentioned by the farmers depending on their memory. For this reason, the farmers aged above 40 years were selected for the study.