For 24 years Abul Kalam Azad of Sayadhangara Moddhopara in Sirajganj town has been sowing palmyra palm seeds on his own initiative. A tailor by trade, he has sown at least 11,500 palm seeds and at least 2,000 date palm seeds, and locals now call him the palm lover.
It began in 2002. He was at a family meal at his maternal uncle's home in Kalyanpur, Kaliahoripur union, with 15 to 20 relatives, when a storm brought one lightning strike after another. One hit the top of a tall palm in the yard and split the tree apart, yet no one in the house was hurt. People said afterwards that a tall palm draws lightning to itself, and the idea of more palms in the fields stayed with him.
He has sown seeds at Katakhali, Elliot Bridge, Sirajganj Government College, the medical college hospital, crossbars 3 and 4 of the town protection embankment, the Sirajganj-Kazipur road and in Kaliahoripur, Bahuli and Shialkol unions. Along three kilometres of the embankment, from its main gate to Belutia near the BSCIC industrial park, more than 2,000 of his palms, now 8 to 10 years old, have grown tall.
Almost every day he cycles out with a spade, a machete and a bottle of water, weeding around the saplings and filling in soil that rain has washed away. He goes wherever he hears of palm seeds; people bring him seeds, and he gathers them from rubbish heaps and palm traders. Each seed costs him about Tk 4 to plant, paid from his own earnings. With no land of his own, he plants on government land by the roads.
His family and neighbours were annoyed at first; now his family helps and many neighbours have changed their minds. Abul Hashem, who lives by the embankment, said few people are as selfless. Sirajganj Sadar upazila nirbahi officer Mamun Khan said palms have great natural and environmental value, that planting them for 24 years is a noble effort and that the administration will help if he asks.
The report is by Protidiner Sangbad's Sirajganj correspondent.
Photo: Smahmood / Wikimedia Commons (public domain); weaver-bird nests on a palm tree
Source: Protidiner Sangbad
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