News Desk : dhakamirror.com
Green activists, students and local residents in Dhanmondi on Saturday asked the Dhaka south city authorities to plan development projects without cutting trees in the capital in the name of development.
They also demanded the authorities stop cutting trees immediately, otherwise, they would start planting trees in the middle of the road.
The demand came from a human chain formed in Dhanmondi’s Satmasjid Road area protesting against cutting trees indiscriminately from the median strips and footpaths of Dhaka city roads, including Satmasjid and Phoenix roads in Gulistan by the Dhaka South City Corporation.
Activists from various environmental organisations participated in the event and said that the city authorities were not aware of the importance of trees in people’s lives.
Simmal Dhuli, a second grader at Nalanda High School, said, ‘Do not cut the trees, we will not get oxygen and shade. Do not cut the trees, we will not have birds and flowers.’
The nature lover said that living in the city would be more difficult as it had already been on the list of the most unlivable cities in the world due to massive air pollution.
Activist Shireen Huq questioned, ‘Do the city authorities not understand how important trees are for us, or are they busy with other tricks?’
The green activists urged the authorities to stop chopping down trees and take action against those involved in such activity.
DSCC superintending engineer Khairul Baker, however, earlier said that the cutting of some trees was necessary for road reconstruction and beautification.
A local resident and coordinator of the Satmojsid Road Tree Protection Movement Amirul Rajiv said that it was not acceptable that DSCC authorities kept cutting trees after several protests.
‘DSCC mayor is not aware of the importance of trees in our lives. .
Earlier in January, the Dhanmondi residents formed a human chain, protesting at tree cutting by the city corporation.
Amid public protests, the contractor carried out construction without cutting any trees further.
On Monday evening, the DSCC cut off more than 60 trees from Satmasjid Road in Dhanmondi, locals said.
After holding protests, they stopped cutting trees for two days, but they again started cutting them on Friday evening without informing.
