Dhaka South plans tree planting in 10 zones and joint earthquake preparedness

Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) took two decisions at a special meeting at Nagar Bhaban, its headquarters, on Thursday 2 July 2026. It would set up a high-level committee to make the national tree-planting programme a success in the city, and it would build coordination with RAJUK and the Fire Service and Civil Defence Directorate to tackle the risk of earthquakes. The meeting was chaired by DSCC administrator Md Abdus Salam, a freedom fighter of the 1971 Liberation War.

The meeting resolved to turn tree planting into a social movement. To that end it decided to form a high-level committee with the DSCC chief executive officer as convener. The new committee was given the task of drawing up a specific, detailed master plan for tree planting in the corporation's 10 zones.

Opening the meeting, administrator Abdus Salam said: "We are determined to make the city green and environment-friendly."

DSCC was created on 1 December 2011, when the old Dhaka City Corporation was split into northern and southern corporations. It began with an area of 45 square kilometres, which grew to 109.2 square kilometres in 2017. The corporation is divided into 75 wards, and the 2022 census counted more than 4.3 million people living within its boundaries.

The meeting heard that about 18,000 trees had by then been planted on road medians across the city under DSCC's Zero Soil project, an environmental protection scheme. Earlier, on 16 June, the 2026 national tree-planting programme had been formally launched in the DSCC area with 600 saplings planted at the same time.

The year before, on 25 June 2025, World Environment Day, the Environment Fair and the National Tree Plantation Campaign and Tree Fair were opened together at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in Dhaka.

The meeting gave serious attention to reducing the city's disaster risk. It decided unanimously to build effective and firm coordination between DSCC, the capital development authority RAJUK and the Fire Service and Civil Defence Directorate to deal with the risk of major natural disasters such as earthquakes. Senior DSCC officials attended.

RAJUK (Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha) is the government authority responsible for the planned development and regulation of Dhaka, under the Ministry of Housing and Public Works. Its work covers zoning rules, building approvals, infrastructure development and the capital's master planning. It began in 1956 as the Dhaka Improvement Trust and became RAJUK in 1987.

The Fire Service and Civil Defence Directorate is the national emergency agency for firefighting, rescue and civil defence, under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It was formed on 9 April 1981 by merging the Fire Service Directorate and the Civil Defence Department.

Dhaka had been shaken hard months earlier. At 10:38 am on 21 November 2025 an earthquake measured at 5.7 on the Richter scale by the Bangladesh Meteorological Department struck with its epicentre at Madhabdi in Narsingdi, about 13 kilometres east of the department's seismic centre at Agargaon in Dhaka. The Business Standard reported that at least 10 people were killed, including a newborn: five in Narsingdi, three in Armanitola in Old Dhaka, one in Mugda and a newborn in Rupganj.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, earthquake expert Professor Humayun Akhtar said that in his experience the shaking was the strongest felt in Bangladesh, and that the quake originated within the Indo-Burma tectonic plate.

Photo: Shadman Samee / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Sources: Jagonews24, Bangla Tribune, Daily Naya Diganta, The Business Standard, Prothom Alo, Wikipedia