Kutupalong, the megacamp that combined with several satellite settlements in the same corner of Bangladesh, is now home to 740,000 refugees.Along this borderland between Myanmar and Bangladesh, Rohingya refugees are beginning to cultivate some of the fresh food that they consume.Boosted in part by an April 2018 U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization influx of 25,000 micro-gardening kits, inhabitants are trying to nourish the damaged environment. KUTUPALONG, Bangladesh — Where a year ago there were only the desolate remains of a forest scythed from hills to house hundreds of thousands in the world’s largest refugee camp, Rohingya refugee Hazara Khatun now picks the vegetables she will use for dinner. Inside a small plastic bag hanging from her wrist is the precious harvest: a few small potatoes, a bundle of leafy greens, and a handful of green beans. All were grown by two of her grandsons, who are among those trying to rekindle an element of their former lives. Many were farmers across the border in Myanmar’s Rakhine state before a military operation in August 2017 killed thousands of civilians and forced the majority of the Rohingya minority into an entirely different life as refugees in a bordering area in Bangladesh. Kutupalong, the megacamp that alongside several satellite settlements in the same corner of Bangladesh grew to house the 740,000 new refugees, became a home built of necessity. It emerged from forest land stripped bare to make way for the bamboo-and-tarpaulin makeshift shelters that have become semi-permanent in the absence of any changes in Myanmar that could guarantee a safe return. When Mongabay visited after the 2017 influx, evidence of the active deforestation was everywhere. Where the refugees were not clearing space for the still-expanding camp, others were hiking hours into the rapidly disappearing forest to gather precious firewood by cutting down trees and even ripping roots from the hills. Returning to Kutupalong a year and a half later, it is still a harsh, ravaged space, but the deforestation has slowed; its inhabitants are finding ways to survive by trying to nourish the damaged environment, often through their own small initiatives but also with the help of government planning. In April 2018, the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) handed out 25,000 micro-gardening kits. “My grandsons started growing this, it makes me happy when I come here and see it,” Hazara said, standing in front of their plots. It has made a difference, she said, by supplementing the mundane ration of lentils and rice the refugees have had to live on. “We started growing so we could have some beans and potatoes to eat,” she said. “We can also earn money by selling them because there is no work for us here. We can grow them and go to other places to sell them.” Kutupalong’s hanging gardens