Arborist Kartik Paramanik Continues Planting Trees in His Eighties
Sadman Sad
Kartik Paramanik, an arborist, started planting trees at the age of 10 but continues to do so at the age of 80. As soon as the rainy season comes, he can’t hold himself anymore.
He went out with the seedlings made in his nursery. Then plant trees on government land, roads and educational institutions.
Kartik Paramanik, a resident of Tarapur village of Monakasha Union Parishad (UP) in Shibganj Upazila, a border village in Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh planted hundreds of trees with several workers every year using his savings.
However, amid this COVID 19 situation, he planted a few trees on the side of Hattapara road along with the college teachers and village children. Before it, he gave 200 Ata fruit trees to the locals at free of cost.
One can get much more goodness by planting trees of shade than by going to Gaya-Kashi and making a pilgrimage. The shadow of that tree will add pleasure to human life.
This is what the father of Kartik Paramanik told him while telling the story. The words he heard in his childhood stuck in his mind. He started planting trees at the age of 10. In the area, various huge trees, including banyan-winged ones, are now witnessing the times, each standing as a Kartiknama.
The Prothom-Alo found Karthik Paramanik after 53 years of his planting. A report on him was published on the front page of Prothom Alo on December 2, 2003, under the headline ‘The huge trees are one Kartiknama’.
Then in 2006 he was taken to Dhaka and awarded the Agriculture Medal. On occasion, the then caretaker government’s communications adviser asked him, “What do you want?” Kartik Paramanik demanded that the roads in his area be paved.
In view of this, in 2007, about seven kilometers of the road was paved from the Hattapara of Monaksha to Kartik Paramanik’s house. A bridge has also been constructed on this road at the cost of around Tk 4 crore.
Kartik Paramanik said, ‘People all over the country have come to know about me since the report was published in Prothom Alo. I have received many honors, medals, and awards in my life. The biggest prize is the story titled “A Man Who Love Trees” published in the eighth grade English textbook in 2013.
There is a reference to the Prothom Alo of December 2 as a source. Students from all over the country have read my story of planting trees. What could be bigger than this in life! ‘
Abdul Hamid(52), the headmaster of the local Tarapur Government Primary School, said about Kartik Paramanik’s planting of the tree, “I have been watching him plant trees since I was a child.”
I spent time in the shade of the tree that he planted at the school premises I attended (Tarapur High School). I have played sports. He planted as many schools-colleges-madrasas’ premises in the area; Karthik Paramanik has planted many trees in all of them. ‘
Abdul Hamid said that many educational institutions had developed with the money from the sale of huge trees planted by Kartik Paramanik. There are also cases where a poor person has planted a tree on the side of the road. The poor man sold the tree and married his daughter.
He added, ‘He is the best man I have ever met in the area. Because even though he is a poor hairdresser, he has planted trees at his own expense. Cared for the tree. He taught the children to read.’
Samir Uddin, a member of Ward 7 of Monakasha UP, said huge trees could be seen in all government roads, intersections, hat bazaars, BGB camps, and Eidgrownd in the area; Kartik Paramanik planted all of these. There are shops and markets beneath his trees. For him, paved roads have built in this remote area of the border.
Samil Uddin Ahmed, an MP from Chapainawabganj-1 (Shibganj) constituency, a resident of the same UP, said, ‘He is the pride of the area. A respected person. Let me give you an example of a dedicated person.
The road has paved for him during the military-backed caretaker government. That road is dilapidated. I have allocated Taka three and a half crore rupees for the reform. The tender was issued three months ago. However, the contractor has not started working yet.
‘Source: GreenPage
