Five orchard owners in Bagha upazila of Rajshahi have been paid rent for bird nests. Upazila chairman Laeb Uddin handed them cheques totalling Tk 3 lakh 13 thousand at 11:30am on Tuesday (May 25).

The event was presided over by Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Papia Sultana. Present were Rajshahi Social Forestry Division Assistant Conservator of Forests Mehedizzaman, Wildlife and Biodiversity Conservation Officer Rahat Hossain, Bagha Upazila Forest Officer Jahurul Haque and Charghat Forest Ranger ABM Abdullah, among others.

At the event, cheques were handed to residents of Khordo Bausa village in the upazila: Tk 40,000 to Shafiqul Islam, Tk 2 lakh to Manjur Rahman, Tk 40,000 to Sanar Uddin, Tk 9,000 to Sahadat Hossain and Tk 24,000 to Shirin Akhter.

Earlier, at the end of October 2019, birds had hatched chicks in the orchard, but the chicks had not yet learned to fly. At that point the leaseholder of the mango orchard wanted to tend the orchard and clear the mango trees by breaking the nests, and did break some nests in one tree. Local bird lovers asked him not to break the nests until the chicks had learned to fly. The leaseholder gave 15 days and announced that if the birds had not left the nests by then, they would be broken down.

Reports on the breaking of the nests were published in the media. Supreme Court lawyer Paramita Roy brought the matter to the court's attention and applied for the necessary directions. The court issued an order with a suo motu rule, asking why the area should not be declared a bird sanctuary.

The Rajshahi deputy commissioner and the Bagha UNO were directed to submit a report to the court within 40 days, assessing the likely loss to the orchard owners and the leaseholder if the area were declared a sanctuary.

A committee was formed by the district administration. Its members identified 38 mango trees damaged by the bird nests and put the loss at Tk 3 lakh 13 thousand.

On November 1, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change allocated the money as compensation to the mango farmers for the Asian openbill nests in the mango orchard of Khordo Bausa village.

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