Countless red water lilies bloom naturally each monsoon in the Dumni and Parunni beels of Prahladpur union in Sreepur upazila, Gazipur. More than a hundred poor families of Dumni village pick them, dry them in the sun and sell them to make ends meet, Dinajpur TV reported.
At first light villagers go out on wooden dinghies or dugouts made from palm trunks. The lilies they gather over a few hours are cut, sorted and dried on jute sacking, then bagged. No capital is needed, only labour.
Gatherers say wholesalers come every few days and buy the dried lily at Tk 80 to 100 a kg at the local market. Working two to three hours a day, a family earns an extra Tk 40,000 to 45,000 over the season; some say they make Tk 1,500 to 2,000 a day.
The red lilies that delight visitors to the beels have become a seasonal livelihood for Dumni village, a natural resource that helps families through the lean months.
Photo: Tanvir Rahat / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Dinajpur TV
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