Saving a Tree
Saving a Tree
The Fazli mango tree, over sixty years old, stood five stories tall. It had a colourful past.
In 1947, just before Partition, Mr. Fazlul Karim was working as the Curator of Calcutta Botanical Garden situated within Eden Gardens. There, he planted and looked after many types of trees. Two years earlier, he had graduated as a botanist from the Agricultural College, Dhaka.
Then came Partition. Karim – originally from Chandpur – migrated to Dhaka. Settling into his new life, he moved to a house with a large yard in Monipuri Para. Eventually he became the Chief Arborist of the Construction and Buildings (later Roads and Highways) department of the government.
His new job responsibilities included planning and planting the garden in Ramna. He set up his office in a tin-shed inside the park. Emphasizing a geometric pattern in gardening, he planted small seedlings in Ramna. Today, these have grown into massive trees and thousands of people enjoy them.
While he was working in Kolkata, Karim had access to many different plant varieties. He brought several fine mango seedlings with him to Dhaka. Among them were Fazli, Khirshapati and Lengra varieties. He kept them alive in containers and, once settled in his new home, planted them in the yard. Over the years, about fifteen of these trees grew tall and strong.
Karim lived in interesting times. In 1967, a group of singers and cultural activists – led by our pioneering singer Mrs. Sanjida Khatun - came to see him in his Ramna office. They had brought an application which sought permission to have a cultural function in Ramna on Pohela Boishakh, the Bangla New Year's day. The application mentioned a bot tree under which the group wanted to perform.
But Karim did not have authority to approve such a request. Nevertheless, he encouraged them and assured them that they would not be bothered if they held such an event. The botomul tradition of singing songs at Pohela Boishakh was born.
He also made a correction to the group's application. The tree they had mentioned was not bot - it was an ashhoth, he informed them. So the Ramna botomul really is an ashhothmul.
Seeing his passion for trees, his son Nazmul once asked him, “Why do you plant so many trees?” “So others after me can enjoy them,” replied the elder Karim.
Karim's mango trees survived him when he passed away in 1994. However, after a night of rain earlier this year, one of the trees fell. It was the sixty-year-old Fazli tree. As it fell, its top caught in the apartment building next door. It came to rest at an inclined position.
Nazmul wanted to save his father's tree. Some advised him to upright it. But he left it untouched (other than chopping off the top part colliding with the apartment.) Instead he built an elaborate support system to hold it in place. Several roots had broken through the ground. He carefully covered them with soil and gobor.
Soon, the tree sent new shoots skyward reaching for the sun. New leaves appeared. It had survived the fall.
I don't know the next chapter in its life, but I have a feeling it will be interesting.
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