Taposh says sorry to locals for felling trees

Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh apologised to the locals of Dhanmondi for the felling of trees on Satmasjid Road.

Talking to reporters after a programme today, he said, "We are very sorry that the trees had to be felled. We tried to keep as many as we could … They were cut down because there was no other way."

The mayor said, "The trees were felled for development work, which is very sad. It has been three years in my term. We have already planted about two lakh trees. We want a beautiful Dhaka. So, we will definitely plant other trees where the trees were felled."

Environmental activists have been protesting against the felling of trees by the DSCC for road development work on Satmasjid Road in Dhanmondi. They alleged that 600 trees have already been cut in the area.

After the mayor's statement, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela), told The Daily Star, "We denounce such unthoughtful, insensitive, profit-seeking, and short-sighted development. This is destruction and not development."

She demanded a declaration from the mayor that no more trees will be felled, not only on Satmasjid Road, but anywhere in the city. The way the divider was made using sand and concrete filler, there was no way of planting local variety of trees, she added.

"The mayor should come to the field and see it for himself. The DSCC should stop bluffing us. We will continue the movement till a clear declaration on tree felling and amendments come from DSCC. The mayor should disclose the entire plan and be transparent in their approach. It's strange that he felt no necessity in talking to us," she added.

Coordinator of Satmasjid Road Tree Protection Movement Amirul Rajiv told The Daily Star, that they heard that the mayor said sorry for the tree felling. He, however, said that saying sorry can't be accepted for the felling of 600 trees.

"We will run our movement until the mayor doesn't talk with us publicly."

The trees are being cut under a Tk 9.62 crore project, aiming to develop different infrastructures, including the beautification of islands, footpaths and road medians, and the construction of public toilets, under DSCC.

The project, which commenced on September 20, 2022, is scheduled to be completed by June 30, 2023.

DSCC chief engineer Saleh Ahmed said, "The geometric dimension of the space requires that we double the size of the medians. In our plan, we have kept designated spaces to plant new trees on these medians."