White kash flowers fill the river chars, but encroachment is shrinking them

With the monsoon clouds gone, white kash flowers are swaying under the blue autumn sky along riverbanks, chars, wetland edges and open ground around towns across Bangladesh, in small clumps in some places and in broad swathes in others.

People of all ages are flocking to see them, with family or friends, and photos and videos of kash fields are spreading on social media.

Kash needs no garden or care. When the monsoon floods recede, this tall grass springs up on its own on river chars, fallow land and wetland margins, and in autumn it flowers in white, cotton-like plumes.

But urban growth, the grabbing of rivers and wetlands, construction and unregulated land use are shrinking kash habitat in many places, threatening not only the scenery but native plants and the small animals that live among them.

Protecting riverbanks, chars and wetlands, the report says, is what will let the fields turn white with kash again every autumn.

The report is from an Agricare24 staff correspondent.

Photo: Auyon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Source: Agricare24