EnvironmentRezaul Kibria Babul, imam of a mosque in Char Fasson, Bhola, sold family land to start a nursery and has planted 50,000 to 60,000 saplings and 25,000 to 30,000 palm seeds over 34 years.
EnvironmentAfter seeing lightning strike a palm tree in 2002, Abul Kalam Azad of Sayadhangara, Sirajganj, began sowing palm seeds; thousands of his palms now line embankments, roads and school grounds.
Since 2008 Zobayer Ahmed Khan Opu has planted about 15,000 saplings and palm seeds across Tangail, Gazipur, Dhaka, Dinajpur, Sylhet and Sunamganj.
Faridpur zila parishad has distributed five thousand palm seeds and assorted saplings across the chars of ten unions in three Padma-side upazilas.
Rezaul Kibria Babul, imam of a mosque in Omarpur union of Charfasson upazila, Bhola, raises seedlings in his own nursery and has lined village roads with fruit, medicinal and palmyra trees for 34 years, funded by selling inherited land and his savings.
A month-long drive across ten char unions in three upazilas, funded by the district council and run with the Faridpur Environment Development Forum, plants palmyra palms as natural lightning arresters.
A tour of villages in nine upazilas found the hanging nests on palmyra and coconut trees have become rare; the agriculture department says the insect-eating bird is a farmer's ally that heavy pesticide use is killing.
The government has planted about 38 lakh palm saplings across Bangladesh to reduce the impact of lightning, the disaster management state minister said.
