Kurigram, Lalmonirhat shivering in cold

Extreme cold in Kurigram and Lalmonirhat over the past several days has been forcing farmers and agricultural workers to stay inside their homes.

The cold has brought day-to-day activities to an almost standstill in the region, especially in villages along the Brahmaputra, Teesta, Dudhkumar and Dharla rivers as well as in river islands or chars.

Unable to work out in the cold, low-income daily wage earners including agricultural workers, who cannot afford to buy warm clothes, have been suffering the most.

Many of them have been trying to keep warm around fires made by burning dry straws or leaves.    

Farmer Mansur Uddin, from Durakuti village in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila, said last Saturday morning, when he and others went in the crop field to work, it was so cold that they had to rush back home without doing any work. 

The cold started to numb his hands and legs after he stayed outside for a little while, he added.  

However, farm labourer Nabir Hossain, from Shimulbari village in Kurigram's Phulbari upazila, had continued to work in the fields despite the cold.

Since it is not possible to work outside every day in such cold, many of them have started to work on contract, rather than on daily wage, he said, adding that hot or cold, many workers like him have no other option but to work in the field to make ends meet.

After almost a week of near-freezing temperatures, the lowest temperature rose to 8.8 degrees Celsius yesterday, according to meteorological office in Rajarhat of Kurigram.

Another day labourer, Mokhlesa Bewa, also from Shimulbari village, said she has been spending most of her days near fires built with dry leaves these days, as she does not have any winter clothes to fight the biting cold.

Farmers might suffer losses and crops might get damaged if workers are unable to work in the crop fields due to the extreme cold, said Shamim Ashraf, deputy director of Department of Agricultural Extension in Lalmonirhat.