Khulna City Corporation and the mobile financial service bKash have launched a joint afforestation drive, 'bKash Forest', at the city's Sonadanga Solar Park and Linear Park. The programme will plant 25,000 trees in Khulna in phases.

Sheikh Faridul Islam, state minister for environment, forest and climate change, and city corporation administrator Nazrul Islam Manju opened the programme on Saturday by planting trees at the solar park. City corporation chief executive Rajib Ahmed, Khulna divisional forest conservator Imran Ahmed and Humayun Kabir, head of regulatory and corporate affairs at bKash, attended.

Organisers said customers will earn 'green points' on set transactions in the bKash app, including utility bill payments, opening a DPS, add money, loans, mobile recharge and send money. As points build up, a virtual sapling in the app's 'bKash Forest' grows into a tree; once a set number is reached, bKash plants a real tree against it, and customers can follow its progress in the app.

The state minister said the trees will be maintained as well as planted, with attention to which species go where and how they are cared for. The ministry is working to get individuals and organisations planting alongside the government, he said, and greening will not succeed without public awareness.

Administrator Nazrul Islam said Khulna and the whole south of the country are exposed to climate change. The Sundarbans, he said, does not only give oxygen but also protects lives and property from cyclones and tidal surges, so a green belt must be built along the coast. He hoped other organisations would join such planting drives.

Source: Prothom Alo