In the concrete cage of urban life, greenery is almost a dream. That dream has been made real by Kamrul Ehsan Chandan, a cancer patient who lives in Ward 4 of Bhaluka municipality in Mymensingh. His garden has become a green school of life.

His garden has medicinal and foreign fruit and flower plants: avocado, rambutan, fig, persimmon, noni, soursop, jaboticaba, mango, lychee, guava, adenium, gerbera, gladiolus, cactus and other succulents.

Around the garden, colourful flowers and strange branches peep out of small and large pots, hanging watering cans, wooden crates and old and new watering cans. The air is full of scents, and swarms of bees have flown in looking for nectar. The little world of plants is like a silent revolution that soothes not only the eyes but the mind. Even amid mechanical life, a garden like this proves that a piece of nature can be built in the heart of a concrete town.

Local people said small seedlings are arranged in rows in the garden. Because there are many unfamiliar species, people come to learn about these plants. Some children come to draw the flowers, others come to take seedlings. Many who suffer from stress or depression come to spend some time with the plants. More gardens like this are needed, they said.

Local resident Tofazzal Hossain said that in this upazila, known as an industrial area, where cutting trees is equated with development, some people are still planting trees and proving that development and nature can live side by side. "It's truly hard to take your eyes off a garden like this," he said.

Kamrul Ehsan Chandan built the garden alongside teaching at a college, working as a journalist and running a business. He loved planting trees from childhood and dreamed of making a garden when he grew up. In 2020 he was diagnosed with blood cancer. Doctors advised hard physical work alongside medicine to recover. With his childhood love of gardening, he built his hobby garden on 10 decimals of valuable land. The garden now has more than 400 local and foreign fruit and flower plants, along with various medicinal plants and seedlings of many endangered plants.

His wife, Sabiha Sultana Laki, said: "At first I didn't like this garden-making work, but now I do. I help my husband look after the garden. Alongside the garden, fish are also being farmed using the biofloc method, and pigeons, local chickens and various vegetables are being raised with care. Seeing a new leaf sprout on a seedling every day, a flower bloom — that is a different kind of joy. To me, the whole garden is a unique world of plants."

Kamrul Ehsan Chandan said: "I wanted to blend natural beauty with a mindful life. I'm having a wonderful time with the garden in my yard. As long as I live, I will keep running the garden."

Saying that industrialisation in Bhaluka is destroying the natural environment, environmentalist Motiur Rahman Joglu, president of the Bhaluka Development Forum, said Chandan's initiative to protect nature will inspire the next generation. "Without doubt, Kamrul Ehsan Chandan is a nature lover," he said.

Bhaluka Upazila Agriculture Officer Nusrat Zaman said Kamrul Ehsan Chandan built the garden through his own effort, and many others are being inspired to make gardens by his example. He will be given all kinds of support, including advice, she said.

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