Dipankar Roy

Like other parts of the country, shops in the Khulna and Barishal divisions have become inundated with customers ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, the biggest religious festival in Bangladesh.

Only about ten to twelve years ago, thousands of acres of land in Khulna would remain uncultivated after the harvesting of Aman rice, but growing of watermelon there did not cross the farmers’ minds.

People living by the Kirtonkhola river in Barishal noticed in March this year that the river’s water had become unusually salty.

The people of Khulna had not even considered watermelon farming just 10 or 12 years ago, when thousands of acres of land would remain uncultivated after the aman paddy season.

As the economic effects of the lockdown intensifies, lower to middle income people of Khulna keep finding it harder and harder to meet their grocery bills. In such a dire time, subsidised daily necessities courtesy of the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) should be a saving grace. But its shortage in its stocks compared to the people’s needs.

“Very often I visit this museum to go back in time, looking at evidence of the Liberation War and reminiscing the days of freedom fighters,” said Bidhan Golder, a freedom fighter and native of Khulna’s Batiaghata upazila. “I had a good relationship with Madhab Chandra’s family. When I come here, I can feel his soul.”

Bangladesh has finally started to farm vannamei shrimp on pilot basis following pleas from exporters as locally grown black tiger shrimp and freshwater prawn are unable to compete with cheaper varieties in western markets.

It has been 10 months since the cyclone Amphan hit Bangladesh, but over 600 families have still been living on an embankment at Kashirhatkhola point in Khulna’s Koyra upazila.

Roksana Khatun moves aside dirt and floating leaves from a pond, slowly lowers her earthen pitcher into it and fills it with around 20 litres of water.

“Whenever someone visits for the first time, the serenity of being surrounded by saplings all around is bound to amaze. Sometimes even I am baffled by the many varieties added over the years.”

The Bhadra, once a free-flowing river in Khulna’s Dumuria upazila, has been turned into a narrow canal over the years, thanks to encroachment by brick kilns run by local influential people, including elected representatives.

With only a week left before the countrywide Covid-19 vaccination campaign kicks off on February 7, training of field-level healthcare workers in Khulna division is yet to start.

Myth says that the philosopher’s stone was a substance that could turn ordinary metal into gold.

In a blatant disregard for public health and environment, Khulna City Corporation has been dumping garbage on a part of Boyra bypass road for a long time.

Thirty-seven villages in Pratapnagar and Sriula unions of Satkhira’s Assasuni upazila went under water when Cyclone Amphan broke major river embankments at several points in May this year.

Thirteen people out of the 14 who were allegedly detained by police -- during and following a clash between law enforcers and agitators protesting jute mill closure in Khulna’s Atra industrial area on Monday -- were shown arrested in a case yesterday.

At least 25 people, including three police personnel, were injured in a clash between police and jute mill workers on Khulna-Jashore highway yesterday morning.

Energypac Power Generation is set to raise Tk 150 crore through initial public offering (IPO), the proceeds of which will be used to make liquid petroleum gas (LPG) more available as a primary fuel source for vehicles in Bangladesh and repay the company’s bank loans.

Lamia Akhter, the sixth grader of Khulna city who got hit by a stray bullet on Friday, underwent successful surgery on her leg yesterday at Khulna Medical College Hospital (KMCH).

Nearly a day and a half after she was hit by a stray bullet in front of her own house, 15-year-old Lamia was lying in a bed at Khulna Medical College Hospital (KMCH) in unbearable anguish last night, the piece of metal still lodged deep inside her body.