Published: 12:00 AM, 27 May 2016
Baldha Garden needs special immediate care
Baldha Garden in Old Dhaka is one of the historical places of the country for which the Wari inhabitants can be proud of. The 106-year-age-old garden has numerous species of rare plants. Its appeal to the nature lovers has been continuing for long though its condition is deteriorating due to unabated pollution and irregularities.Locals who visit the garden regularly alleged that a number of rare plants, orchid and herbs have already been lost from the garden. The place currently has become the den of drug addicts, couples and rootless people. The tree-lovers have left the place due to public nuisance, snatching incidents and harassments. Now none dare to take the route even to commute. Rankin Street resident Abul Khayer Salahuddin said, "The rootless people and local hooligans occupy the garden entrance. They make such level of public nuisance that someone with consciousness can't roam around tolerating those."
One of the security personnel of the garden said that none go to the garden to pass their leisure time except the drug addicts and thugs. They blackmail the visitors and often snatch mobile phones and money if they do not pay them off.
Sumi Enterprise, a private company sells ticket to the visitors of the garden. The proprietor of the company Sirazur Rahman Sumon said they had nothing to do in this regard as the national botanical garden take care of the place while forest ministry is responsible to look after the garden.The existence of the garden is in peril due to irregularities and mismanagement of the authorities concerned. Once there were a total of 18,000 plants of 800 species. One unit of the garden, 'Psyche' had water lilies of different colors, rare native and foreign cactus, orchid, anthurium, Betula Utilis, Mimusops Elengi etc. Most of the species are not there in the garden now. There were mud piles found inside the garden which were brought for the land enrichment. However, the garden staff seemed forgotten about it while plants were found dying for lack of fertilizer and moister. For the employees, the garden allegedly has been treated as the place for punishment posting. Therefore, the garden officials and employees only draw their salaries mostly without performing their duties. Caretaker of the garden Abdul Mannan Sharker said, "High-rise buildings are cordoning the garden which blocks the sunlight. If more skyscrapers continue to be constructed nearby, the remaining herbs would die in near future due to lack of light and breeze."
"Moreover, the Gulistan-Jatrabari flyover is polluting the atmosphere," he claimed. Mokarram Hossen, a renowned naturalist said he used to visit Baldha Garden regularly as the 'Psyche' unit attracted him very much. He however stopped visiting the garden as the only papyrus tree in the country died. DU Botany Department Professor Mihir Lal Saha said he went to the garden with his students many times. "It is very sad if a single tree of the garden dies due to lack of care and mismanagement," he said adding that the ministry should form a committee to look after the garden.
Another naturalist Faruk Ahmed opined that the garden was old enough to replace some of its trees. Once, the place was renowned for Amazon Lily, though now it depends on Mirpur Botanical Garden for the flower. The Spathodea and Sugar Pine trees are dead while the only Sandalwood tree is inching to the same fate. "However, the garden authority has failed to do the needful," he concluded.
Naturalist, philanthropist and poet Narendra Narayan Roy Chaudhury, landlord of the Estate of Baldah, established the garden on his own property in 1909. It is divided into two units. The larger unit is named 'Cybele' after the Greek nature goddess of fertility. It is roughly rectangular, with the northern side slightly cutting a corner, and measures about 136 meters in length and 76 meters in width. The smaller unit, 'Psyche' meaning 'soul', is approximately 100 meters long and 45 meters wide.
Chaudhury passionately enriched the garden with rare plant species collected from different parts of the world until his death in 1943, when further expansion of the garden came to a halt. This situation continued until 1962, when the garden was handed over to the government of the ehen East Pakistan and the Forestry Department took charge of managing it. After the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, the Department of Forestry of the new government began to work with renewed vigor for its improvement, with the result that most of its past glory has now been restored with the addition of two new greenhouses and modernization of civil amenities inside the garden. The Baldah Garden is now managed as a satellite unit of the National Botanical Garden by the Department of Forestry.The collection of the garden is classified into seven categories: Orchids, cacti, conservatory plants, aquatic plants, roses, rockery and wall plants, arboretum, and miscellaneous flora.
There is a big sundial in the 'Cybele' unit of the garden which shows the time of the day with precision on sunny days and is still a surprise attraction to the visitors, particularly children. To enjoy the floristic beauty of the garden a rest house-cum amphitheatre, called the 'Joy House', was built in the garden. It has been visited by many celebrities, including the poet Tagore whose poem 'Camelia', a plant introduced from Japan, was actually written while he was staying in the 'Joy House'. The 'Psyche' unit of the garden houses several varieties of the aquatic plant Nymphea Pubescens, the national flower of Bangladesh which is called 'Shapla' in Bangla, maintained in a section of the garden known as the 'Shapla House'. The rose garden in 'Cybele' is famous throughout the subcontinent for its rich collection of roses. However, negligence, irregularity and pollution have turned the garden into a jungle. It needs special care on an urgent basis, nature lovers opined.
One of the security personnel of the garden said that none go to the garden to pass their leisure time except the drug addicts and thugs. They blackmail the visitors and often snatch mobile phones and money if they do not pay them off.
Sumi Enterprise, a private company sells ticket to the visitors of the garden. The proprietor of the company Sirazur Rahman Sumon said they had nothing to do in this regard as the national botanical garden take care of the place while forest ministry is responsible to look after the garden.The existence of the garden is in peril due to irregularities and mismanagement of the authorities concerned. Once there were a total of 18,000 plants of 800 species. One unit of the garden, 'Psyche' had water lilies of different colors, rare native and foreign cactus, orchid, anthurium, Betula Utilis, Mimusops Elengi etc. Most of the species are not there in the garden now. There were mud piles found inside the garden which were brought for the land enrichment. However, the garden staff seemed forgotten about it while plants were found dying for lack of fertilizer and moister. For the employees, the garden allegedly has been treated as the place for punishment posting. Therefore, the garden officials and employees only draw their salaries mostly without performing their duties. Caretaker of the garden Abdul Mannan Sharker said, "High-rise buildings are cordoning the garden which blocks the sunlight. If more skyscrapers continue to be constructed nearby, the remaining herbs would die in near future due to lack of light and breeze."
"Moreover, the Gulistan-Jatrabari flyover is polluting the atmosphere," he claimed. Mokarram Hossen, a renowned naturalist said he used to visit Baldha Garden regularly as the 'Psyche' unit attracted him very much. He however stopped visiting the garden as the only papyrus tree in the country died. DU Botany Department Professor Mihir Lal Saha said he went to the garden with his students many times. "It is very sad if a single tree of the garden dies due to lack of care and mismanagement," he said adding that the ministry should form a committee to look after the garden.
Another naturalist Faruk Ahmed opined that the garden was old enough to replace some of its trees. Once, the place was renowned for Amazon Lily, though now it depends on Mirpur Botanical Garden for the flower. The Spathodea and Sugar Pine trees are dead while the only Sandalwood tree is inching to the same fate. "However, the garden authority has failed to do the needful," he concluded.
Naturalist, philanthropist and poet Narendra Narayan Roy Chaudhury, landlord of the Estate of Baldah, established the garden on his own property in 1909. It is divided into two units. The larger unit is named 'Cybele' after the Greek nature goddess of fertility. It is roughly rectangular, with the northern side slightly cutting a corner, and measures about 136 meters in length and 76 meters in width. The smaller unit, 'Psyche' meaning 'soul', is approximately 100 meters long and 45 meters wide.
Chaudhury passionately enriched the garden with rare plant species collected from different parts of the world until his death in 1943, when further expansion of the garden came to a halt. This situation continued until 1962, when the garden was handed over to the government of the ehen East Pakistan and the Forestry Department took charge of managing it. After the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, the Department of Forestry of the new government began to work with renewed vigor for its improvement, with the result that most of its past glory has now been restored with the addition of two new greenhouses and modernization of civil amenities inside the garden. The Baldah Garden is now managed as a satellite unit of the National Botanical Garden by the Department of Forestry.The collection of the garden is classified into seven categories: Orchids, cacti, conservatory plants, aquatic plants, roses, rockery and wall plants, arboretum, and miscellaneous flora.
There is a big sundial in the 'Cybele' unit of the garden which shows the time of the day with precision on sunny days and is still a surprise attraction to the visitors, particularly children. To enjoy the floristic beauty of the garden a rest house-cum amphitheatre, called the 'Joy House', was built in the garden. It has been visited by many celebrities, including the poet Tagore whose poem 'Camelia', a plant introduced from Japan, was actually written while he was staying in the 'Joy House'. The 'Psyche' unit of the garden houses several varieties of the aquatic plant Nymphea Pubescens, the national flower of Bangladesh which is called 'Shapla' in Bangla, maintained in a section of the garden known as the 'Shapla House'. The rose garden in 'Cybele' is famous throughout the subcontinent for its rich collection of roses. However, negligence, irregularity and pollution have turned the garden into a jungle. It needs special care on an urgent basis, nature lovers opined.
