PM recalls Arafat neem trees as tree planting begins in 29,000 schools

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman launched a tree-planting programme in more than 29,000 secondary-level educational institutions on the afternoon of Monday, 29 June 2026, at the Bangladesh-China Friendship International Conference Centre in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka. After planting a neem sapling to open the drive, he recounted how neem trees came to be planted on the plain of Arafat in Saudi Arabia in the time of his father, former President Ziaur Rahman, and asked students to plant at least one tree every year.

According to a Dhaka Times report on the day, the initiative was part of the target, announced in the government's election manifesto, of planting 25 crore saplings in five years, and of the "One Child, One Tree" programme. The Ministry of Education said there was a plan to plant five crore trees in the country's educational institutions over the next five years. A total of 29,621 institutions took part in this round:

• 18,907 schools
• 1,446 school-and-colleges
• 9,268 madrasas

Each institution was to plant one fruit tree, one timber tree and one medicinal tree that year, and each received a special grant of Tk 5,000 for environmental awareness, the ministry said. The launch was screened live on large screens in the institutions. BSS reported that the Prime Minister's wife Dr Zubaida Rahman, Education Minister Dr ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon and Education Adviser Mahdi Amin were among those present.

There are many neem trees on the plain of Arafat now, the Prime Minister said, but 40 to 50 years ago there were none. In his account, Ziaur Rahman noticed this while performing Umrah around 1978 and suggested to the Saudi authorities of the time that neem trees be planted to shade pilgrims, after which about one lakh neem saplings were sent from Bangladesh. Bangla Tribune's report gives the year as "probably 1978". Many people in Saudi Arabia know the trees as the "Zia tree", he said.

The Saudi press has also written about the Arafat neem trees. Arab News reported in October 2011 that there were 300,000 neem trees in Arafat, and that large-scale planting to shade pilgrims had begun in 1986 as a charitable endowment project of the Saudi businessman Abdul Rahman Fakieh. The project's engineer said then that neem suited the region's climate and shaded large areas.

Neem (Azadirachta indica) is a tree of the mahogany family, Meliaceae, native to Bangladesh and other parts of the Indian subcontinent and Indochina. It is one of very few shade trees that thrive in drought-prone areas, usually grows 15 to 20 metres tall and does best on well-drained, deep, sandy soils.

Addressing students, he said: "As long as you live, plant one tree every year. When the tree grows a little, it will feel like your friend." He asked teachers to encourage students to plant trees. According to BSS, he said that observing a single day does not end people's responsibility and that they should make a habit of planting at least one tree every monsoon. He also suggested that families plant a tree in the name of each newborn child.

The monsoon had begun but the expected rain was not falling, the Prime Minister said; 40 to 45 years ago it used to rain for a week at a stretch in the rainy season. In his view, one of the main reasons is the indiscriminate felling of trees, and with fewer trees the environment is getting hotter. The more trees the country has, the cooler the environment and the more comfortable people's lives will be, he said.

Photo: Kaliper1 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sources: Jagonews24, BSS, Bangla Tribune, Dhaka Times, Bonik Barta, Arab News, Wikipedia