'Construct building without felling trees’

Green Voice, an environmental organisation, forms a human chain in front of Teacher-Student Centre (TSC) on Dhaka University (DU) campus yesterday demanding the authorities construct the proposed new building on Jagannath Hall premises without felling trees at the selected site.Photo: STAR

Green Voice (GV), an environmental organisation, yesterday formed a human chain on Dhaka University (DU) campus demanding the authorities construct the proposed new building on Jagannath Hall premises without felling trees at the selected spot.
Authorities will cut down a good number of trees in order to build a five-storied residential building that would be constructed in between the hall pond and Udayan High School. Some 500 students of the hall's East Building, which was declared unsafe for living in 2006, would be shifted to the new one.
GV members and a group of DU students formed the human chain at Teacher-Student Centre (TSC) intersection.
Talking to the Daily Star, GV Coordinator Alamgir Kabir said a number of trees can be saved if the authorities are willing to do so.
“There is no need to cut down the trees next to the school boundary as the building would be constructed piling the soil, and so there is a minimum chance of damaging roots of those trees,” Alamgir said referring to architectures of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan (Bapa).
Bapa General Secretary Dr Abdul Matin, Joint Secretary Shahjahan Mridha Benu, architect Iqbal Habib and Sharif Jamil also participated at the programme.
After chopping down some trees, a group of hall students on Thursday protested the decision to fell the trees, which are next to the Udayan High School boundary.
Amid student agitation, authorities temporarily stopped felling of the trees next to the boundary.