'Pollution causing death of city trees'
Industrial pollutants, including sulphur dioxide and other poisonous gases emitted especially from brick kilns around the cities, are polluting the air, causing death of trees and serious diseases among city dwellers.
An accomplished agriculturist said the government should take immediate action against such industries causing pollution.
He was reacting over a recently published newspaper report which said nearly 500 trees have died in the Bashundhara residential area, 20 around the Baridhara Lake, 25 near the Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University and ten more at the Farmgate Park.
Centre for Global Environmental Culture (CGEC) Director Dr Mohammed Ataur Rahman said thousands of raintrees and acacias trees died in many areas of the city but nobody raised any doubts over their deaths.
He mentioned that in 2003-2005, many big raintrees died in Chittagong (Polo-ground and CRB, etc). Some nageshwar and acacia trees died in Cantonment area. Thousands of sissoo trees died after 1988 floods throughout Bangladesh especially along roads by floodplains.
Rahman noted that raintrees were planted in the late nineteenth century in Mymensingh, Gouripur, Shambhuganj and tea gardens but they are still surviving. The huge raintree of Amail Tea Estate (about 35 ft in girth) and some in Satgaon are growing well.
He said indiscriminate plantations without respecting the habit and habitats or natural laws are causing huge damage to wealth each year.
He questioned on why people are being advised to plant Sissoo plants along the roadside where they can suffer from water logging, as they cannot tolerate water logging even for short durations.
More than 1,000 thuja plants were planted under the flyover bridge at Mohakhali though they highly demand sunlight. But now they are again replaced with Jhiri bot tees (Ficus), he mentioned.
“Why did they not consider the habit and habitat of thuja plants? Was it not a waste of public money?”
Dr Rahman said even rural farmers know that coconut trees need to be spaced with a minimum of 20 feet between each other but along the highway near Cantonment and Nikunja, the spacing of the coconut trees is only 8-10 feet.
Are the coconut plants ornamental, for windbreaks or fruiting? If ornamental, there is nothing to say but for windbreaks and fruiting, the spacing needs to be 20 to 30 feet, Rahman added.
Poor villagers have also been misguided by some agencies into planting mahogany, raintree, acacia, rajkorai (Albizzia richardiana) and eucalyptus trees in the rural homes to get short-term benefits. This practice is leaving traditionally growing eco-friendly trees like mango, jackfruit, blackberry, kadam, palmyra palm, areca palm, coconut, ebony and others, he added.
He said acacia and eucalyptus grow fast but their dead leaves are not easily decomposable and do not allow undergrowth. The large canopy of raintree shades huge areas and disturbs the growth of other homestead crops. Sometimes this leads to quarreling among neighbours, he said.
Certainly the timber value of mahogany trees is superior to jackfruit trees but the latter provides fruits that can provide food and energy to our hungry people, he said.
Indiscriminate plantation of some exotic trees caused huge damage during the strong winds of cyclones like Sidr and Aila. Uprooted and broken trees damaged houses and constructions and disrupted power transmission lines, he added.
Rahman said plantations without considering the plants' habit and habitat is a punishable act and waste of public money. We must consider our environment first and it should be of national interest, he said.
Rahman was stern in saying that so-called environmentalists should respect the habit, habitats and laws of the nature. They should learn from nature before claiming themselves to be naturalists or environmentalists, he said.
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