For every tree cut, at least three must be planted. Bangladesh holds tree planting programmes every year with that idea in mind, and in the same spirit a tree fair is held in Khulna each year. This year was no exception.

On 16 July, Khulna Divisional Commissioner Md Helal Mahmud Sharif opened the 15-day divisional tree planting campaign and tree fair at the Khulna Circuit House ground. The Khulna district administration and the Sundarbans West Forest Division organised it jointly. The fair runs every day from 8am to 9pm, and it has 55 stalls in all, including the Sundarbans West Forest Division's own, selling saplings of various species.

At last year's fair about 70,860 saplings of various species were sold, worth about Tk 80 lakh. But this year the picture is a little different.

Talking to sellers around the fair brought mixed responses. Some stall owners said sales this year are quite good, while others said they are losing about Tk 2,000 to 3,000 a day so far. There are not as many buyers as expected, and they blamed the quota movement. Others said some buyers come on holidays, when sales are good. They said there is no shortage of saplings at the fair.

They hoped that sales would be good in the remaining days if no further movement or unrest breaks out in the country before the fair ends on 30 July.

A buyer who had come to purchase saplings said trees take in carbon dioxide from the environment and keep us alive by giving us oxygen, so we should all plant trees. Everyone should plant trees on whatever empty space they have, leaving not an inch bare, and all people must be encouraged to plant trees, he said, urging everyone to come to the fair and buy saplings.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.