The news that has drawn widespread condemnation in recent weeks is the weird proposal to cut down the trees lining the Jessore-Benapole highway connecting Bangladesh with India for expansion and development. This is genocide!
According to available statistics, at least 2,312 trees, of which 745 are more than 100 year-old raintrees, are providing shade to travellers. Jessore District Commissioner Ashrafuddin told the Asian Age by telephone that the authorities had sent a proposal to fell the trees to widen the busy highway to the ministry of roads and bridges.
Asked if there was no other alternative, he said, "It was a decision agreed by public representatives, officials, civil society members and the administration and the final decision will be taken by the ministry," adding that not all of the trees were decades-old.
The district administrative chief admitted the decision has drawn flak from various quarters and it all depended on the ministry decision. "It is a long process and nothing will be done immediately," he said.When asked what was his personal wish, he evaded making a response, saying it was the ministry's decision he would carry out.
Obviously, felling such trees will have a negative impact on the local environment, and with it a significant part of golden history will be buried.
Above all, to this writer each of the trees has life and felling them is murder in the first degree. The murderers will be tried definitely in the natural course and of course by our Creator. Please do not laugh, but come out of this most absurd idea and find alternatives to this destructive course.
I would like to think this idea to sacrifice the trees in the name of development is a fast money-making tactic and has nothing to do with development. We have seen such practices in Dhaka and many other places, a contrast to what we see in what we call a "civilised world."
In Britain, the tree doctor will come to fell a tree carefully and artistically once the local administration grants permission. The first option there is to find out how to save the trees, whereas we randomly murder trees in a blink as if they have no life, but are only a source of money.
Imagine they are screaming out for life as they cannot talk. Imagine the blood flow which is at most white juice, but not red to scare us. It is as if the marauding Pakistan army is preparing to attack people to wipe out the history of the sub-continent's partition and the 1971 triumph of the Joy Bangla chanting freedom fighters.
The ministry's additional secretary Belayet Hossain was quoted as saying by a Dhaka daily that a six-lane highway was needed as two links of the Asian Highway will be merged with the Jessore-Benapole highway.
My proposal is that it is very much possible. Leave the road and the trees on both sides alone as both have historic value. Build new roads on both sides with one for vehicles going to Benapole and the other will be just the reverse. Landowners who will have to give up their land should be well compensated or given alternatives.
The old road properly repaired will only be used for walking with restaurantsboutique-like shops on both sides. This will be a place for day-out programmes and also attract tourists. I treat my plants at home like my babies. I talk to them to relate my love to them so that they flower well.
Talk about my dog. His name is Chase and he is my only son. He sleeps with me, plays with me and gives me a world of joy that no fellow human could ever give me. I listen to his "ku, ku" sounds, telling me something and, believe me, we have great communications.
Treat these helpless trees like your own children. Feel them, love them. Let us unite to save the innocent trees, telling those inhuman ones who are after their lives to listen to them, feel them as they too have a life. They are neither lifeless objects nor dead. Please do not be labelled as a murderer.
The writer is Roving Editor, The Asian Age
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