The Prokriti O Poribesh Club (Nature and Environment Club) in Akhaura upazila of Brahmanbaria has given students saplings of various fruit trees.

The saplings were handed out on Friday afternoon (16 June) to more than 100 pupils of Akchhir M Chowdhury Charity Trust Primary School at the Rabia Khatun Smriti Pathagar (library) grounds in Dhaleshwar village, on the border, in the upazila's Dakshin union.

The saplings were given to the pupils to help tackle the risks of climate change, beautify nature, protect the balance of the environment and build a green environment.

Each pupil was handed a fruit sapling and told that if they looked after the tree they would get an extra 50 marks in the final exam. Those who did not care for their trees would have fifty marks deducted from their total.

The distribution was presided over by journalist Rubel Ahmed, convener of the environmental organisation Akhaura Prokriti O Poribesh Club. The chief guest was Supreme Court lawyer Akchhir M Chowdhury, adviser to the organisation and founding president of the Rabia Khatun Smriti Pathagar. Special guests were Jessi Jang, general manager of Asia Sunny Industry International Company Limited, and Penson Si, sales manager of Morton Sanitaryware Manufacture Limited.

Advocate Akchhir M Chowdhury said everyone must plant more trees to protect the environment. Under heavy population pressure, most farmland in the country is being cleared to build houses, trees are being cut all the time and no one follows the forest department's rules, so the environment is under threat. If trees and farmland keep disappearing at this rate, the country will suffer from natural disasters and food shortages will one day become acute, he said. There is no alternative to planting trees to keep the environment in balance.

He added that not even a third of the trees once seen all around can be seen now. If this continues, temperatures will rise and harm the environment. Most of the country already floods in the monsoon. This green land is no longer what it was: it was called green mainly because of the dense trees all around, and that green face is now rarely seen, he said.

After the event, the two foreign nationals planted one medicinal and two fruit trees at the library grounds and the field of Akchhir M Chowdhury Charity Trust Primary School.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.