Reared lovingly by local man, trees felled for beautification
Sylhet City Corporation is beautifying the city’s road medians by planting flower trees, but they had to cut down 48 trees in Pathantula area in the process.
An elderly man by the name of Abdul Baten had planted trees on a road median in Pathantula. Of the 48 trees, 22 were Palmyra palm, while the rest were fruit and medicinal plants. Abdul Baten passed away in 2016, but the trees remained and continued to serve the locality. His family has been caring for the trees for the past three years.
However, SCC felled all the trees on Monday. Officials said these trees were planted without proper planning, and now they want to plant peacock flower (radhachura) and royal poinciana (krishnachura).
Baten’s grandson Abul Hasan Newaj said, “After the road median was constructed in 2012, my grandfather planted those trees and he used to take care of the them. But the corporation felled the trees amid protests from locals. It is painful to see the trees which were so dear to my grandfather, being cut down.”
Ali Hossain, a local trader of the area, said, “Abdul Baten worked hard to grow these trees. People used to take neem and akanda leaves for medicinal use. The corporation should have kept these trees or at least shifted them, considering the memory of an elderly man.”
Mayor Ariful Haque Choudhury said, “We are beautifying road medians with flower trees. Not all trees are suitable to be planted in road medians. We had to fell those trees for the ongoing development work and we hope the citizens will understand our concern.”
Abdul Karim Kim, general secretary of Bapa in Sylhet, said, “There should be no reason to cut down trees, but it’s also logical that not all trees are suitable for planting in road dividers. However, the city corporation felled the trees without consideration and consultation with locals.”
“Many trees, specially the Palmyra palm trees could be transferred to a different place,” he said. Bhoomishontan Bangladesh, an environmental organisation, yesterday decided to recover some of the trees as the stems are still there.
Ashraful Kabir, coordinator of the organisation, along with Abdul Karim Kim inspected the spot to decide how they can recover the trees and shift them elsewhere.
In the afternoon, SCC Mayor Ariful visited the spot and apologised to the family of Abdul Baten and locals. He said, in the future, the corporation will shift trees which are considered unsuitable for road median, instead of felling them.
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