I live in a middle-income citizen’s residential area in Dhaka city. My birthplace and childhood memories are full of green city memories. The name of my childhood city is Khulna. We were also living in a middle-income citizen’s area in that city. But we found almost all the buildings have plenty of trees in the front side of each house. The roadside areas were broad and there are plenty of big sizes old and young trees. All of these tees including individual home-based trees, free areas based on individuals, and roadside trees have given a green view in Khulna city.
My family moved to Dhaka city in the middle of the 90s. Like all the newcomers from another city to the capital city, my family also had to struggle to find a good living place in a middle-income area. Although we found good homes with spacious inside but I started to miss trees in Dhaka city’s living areas. I discussed with many friends the reasons for deforestation in the capital city. While most of them believe that keeping free space for plantations is foolishness. If they like to enjoy nature then they can visit parks or villages. Over time, the number of developer companies increased countrywide. Knowledge about urban plantation is hardly been found in the designs of urban homes nowadays.
A new fashion has emerged i.e. roof-top and balcony gardening. Although I love also balcony gardening, still I miss the fresh air under big trees in Dhaka city’s residential area. Our country is one of the highest populated countries. Ignoring individual responsibilities and blaming always the government is not the solution to producing fresh air.
We must be responsible for the plantation before designing any new building each house owner’s responsibility.