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Blind, yet they set green mark

Group of blind people team up to plant trees along Nilphamari road since 2007

EAM ASADUZZAMAN, Nilphamari
They can't see the world and all its treasures because of their visual impairment. Yet they've all the eagerness to do their bits in making the globe greener.
A group of blind people in a remote Nilphamari village got ^iem united under the banner of an association and started planting trees on both sides of the road at Mirganj in Jaldhaka upazila in 2007 with a missionary zeal.
To them, trees are symbols of beauty that cast a soothing spell on heavy hearts like theirs who want to survive amidst all the despairs.
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Monzurul Islam, a bom blind now in his early 30s, of Mirganj village of Jaldhaka. has deep love for trees. As an escape from childhood pangs and agonies. Islam used to take refuge under a large banyan tree at one corner of his village. He used to rest under it to feel relieved and eventually fall asleep with the touch of its gentle breeze.
As Monzurul became grown up. he got acquainted with other blind men of his neighbourhoods and started sharing their thoughts and ideas on every haat-day (weekly bazaar) as they used to meet at a place beside Mirganj haat. That was the place where the village nursery owners used to come and sit with .saplings of different trees for sale.
Sometimes as the nursery owners would throw away a few rejected saplings from their lots. Islam anti his sightless friends used to pick those up and plant beside the roads. To their pleasure, some saplings survived and became trees.
In 2007, Islam and nine other blind persons formed an association--Mirganj Shapla Protibondhi Unnayan Samity--with a motto to plant more trees.
Upon their application, Mirganj Union Parishad permitted them to plant trees on a 2-km stretch roadside from Mirganj haat to Am Bagan for ten years.
The union parishad also allowed the blind men's Samiti to take 80 percent from the sales proceeds of the trees after 10 years of their plantation while the remaining 20 percent would be equally shared by the parishad and the roadside people.
Monzurul Islam told The Daily Star that in the first phase they had targeted to plant 1,000 trees in the rainy season of 2008. To purchase tree saplings, fertiliser, and bamboo sticks the association members started contributing Tk 50 each in the following few months, he recalled.
Ismail Hossain, the secretary of the association, said some of the group members had hard time giving the monthly contribution ofTk 50 but yet they have succeeded to create a fund. Eventually, they planted 850 saplings in 2008 while 650 this year on both sides of the two km road from Mirganj haat to Am Bagan. he said.
The efforts of the blind people have created an en thusi -asm among the surrounding villagers. They have also extended their helping hands to them. Mirganj Hafizia Madrasa teacher Moinul Islam said he had directed his students to take care of the trees so that cattle do not cause any harm.
Some of the trees planted in 2008 have become 8-10 feet tall. They are spreading branches to create a green landscape on the horizon. The
blind people take rest under them while they become tired nursing the trees. Sometimes birds sit on branches and start chirping, sometimes gentle breeze blows creating a rhythmic sound of leaves, locals said.
A member of the union parishad Alimuddin said 95 percent trees have survived thanks to the sincere care of the blind men.
Jatindranath Rishi, a rehabilitation assistant of RDSS, an NGO working for handicapped people in the area, said they have provided white canes to the blind people. He holds monthly meetings with
them to train them in income generating activities like tree plantation.
Mirganj Union Parishad Chairman Mir Hamidul Ehsan Chanu told this correspondent that the blind people of his area have proved their utility as they are contributing to preserving the environment.
Upazila Nirbahi Officer of Jaldhaka Shahidul Islam Bhuyan said the blind people have proved that they are no more burdens to the society. Their effort is a message to all that the days are changing to turn the handicapped into manpower, he added.