Bangladesh's forest department is bringing vanishing hill trees back to land it has recovered from encroachers. On 10 acres reclaimed at Betbunia mouza in Kaukhali upazila, Rangamati, under the Kalampati beat of Khaskhali range, 10,000 saplings have been planted this year to create a conservation garden.
According to the Rangamati Jhum Control Forest Division, the timber species include goda, gutgutia, boilam, chapalish, dheua, civit kadam, charmugra, banshpata, banyan, pakur, jogdumur, arjun, sonalu, udal, mailarom, oiriam and mohua. The fruit trees include custard apple, sweetsop, rose apple, dhaki jam, triphala, amla, bahera, chalta, jackfruit, local mango, local gab and velvet apple.
Forest officials say the aim is not just planting but conserving local hill species that are disappearing. Once the trees mature, seed will be collected to raise saplings for afforestation elsewhere.
Assistant conservator of forests Md Tabibur Rahman said the garden will become a research site on the growth, conservation and seed production of hill forest plants, with a possible laboratory. The work is also part of the government's announced programme to plant 250 million saplings, he said.
Jamail Bashir JB, a member and technical expert of the national tree-planting cell at the Prime Minister's Office, said the forest department has recovered much land and planted thousands of saplings of threatened species on it.
The report is by Banglanews24 district correspondent Moin Uddin Bappi.
Photo: Rangamati hills and Kaptai Lake (file), Taufiquehossain88 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Banglanews24
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