The largely concrete-and-iron neighbourhood of Manhattan in New York City has for ages been dotted by green spots. Apart from the Central Park, a number of blocks in the area offer shaded and tranquil shelters to the passersby, as well as families and individuals spending weekends. These spots are like oases in a barren expanse filled with high-rises and esplanades. There are parks in all the five boroughs in New York City. Of them 10 are dubbed magnificent. All US cities have their own national parks. A similar scene is found in many other big cities around the globe. In South Asia, the authorities in the cities like Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai have been found hardly faltering in their tasks to make their cities appear as green as possible. The lush green sylvan pocket in Kolkata's Maidan area is veritably a pleasant comfort to the city-dwellers' eyes and the mind. The over 300-year-old city has more than a dozen spectacular parks. They include Millennium Park, Elliot Park, Nature Park, Eco Tourism Park and Central Park. In this respect, Dhaka stands apart demonstrating its wretched dearth of urban parks. This feature at times is picked by critics to single out the nature-adverse stance of the city's urban administrators in the 20th-21st centuries. Both the Mughal and British custodians of Dhaka city have left the vestiges of their sincere efforts to turn Dhaka into a green city.
The news of wielding axe on the capital's lately built green corners by the city corporations deals a severe blow to the plans being designed by creative city planners. They are dreaming of restoring to Dhaka its earlier beauty comprising arrays of trees along the major roads, and park-like recesses. These spots are set to serve as a great relief to the work-weary people, providing minds overcast with scores of worries a space for fresh thinking. But making the plans materialise has for long been a daunting task. Known as a tree and bush-filled city since its early days in the 17th century, four centuries later Dhaka has earned a lot of infamy for its promotion of hostility and apathy towards plant life and water bodies. Tree felling and clearing of green swathes once turned out to be a virtual sine qua non for the city's 'modernisation'. The orgiastic felling of trees continued through the 1980s and the 1990s. Had it not for the sprawling Ramna Park, and the privately owned Baldah Garden, the city could be passed as one growing in an arid landscape. Except for occasional interventions by a few administrations with dreams of a city nestled in invigorating nature, indifference towards sylvan beauty kept ruling the roost in Dhaka. Ironically, the formative days of the city witnessed serious concern of the city administrators to keep Dhaka's greenness unspoiled. The large and neat garden around the Lalbagh Fort complex stands witness to it. The fort was built by Subedar Muhammad Azam Shah during the Mughal rule of Dhaka. It sounds like a fiction today, amid the grim reality concerning the mindless dismantling of the city's innovative green spots.
The decision of dismantling two new and widely appreciated beauty corners by the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) comes as a shock to many city residents. In spite of not being conventional parks, the humble-looking spots exuded refreshing charms of nature. They had just begun attracting people going past them. In terms of aesthetic elements latent in the innovative project, the two spots eventually proved sincerity of DSCC in making Dhaka beautiful. The corporation has taken up several beautification projects for the capital since taking charge of its civic amenities. The two green spots, one called 'Orgho' and the other 'Nogorey Nishorgo' were installed near busy roads in 2006 and 2008 respectively. 'Orgho' presented an elegant view created by small trees, orchids and flower-beds amid carefully grown patches of grass. Sculptures of birds, scattered pebbles and small water pools with swans and tiny fishes enhanced the spot's charm. Located at the Green Road-Mirpur Road roundabout near Science Laboratory, the mini-park did not take much time to attract attention of the pedestrians. Two years later, a similar spot was built at a busy roadside in Tantibazar area in Old Dhaka. It was smaller in size with the same features as found in 'Orgho'. Thanks to its elongated shape, it could even accommodate an artificial hillock filled with hedges and wild shrubs. In the squalid, congested and stifling surrounding of the Old Dhaka, the spot was warmly welcomed by the local people. They heartily accepted it as a gift from the DSCC, a unique space providing great prospects for relief for the perennially fatigued people living in the area. A private nature-preservation agency was given the task for setting up the two green spots.
That disagreement between DSCC and the agency over the job contract's terms will lead to the abandonment of the project came as a great shock to the city residents. The contentious issues could have been ironed out. What has puzzled the people is the corporation's haste in dismantling the spots. First, a blinding and flashy electronic billboard was installed at the Tantibazar spot. It greatly robbed the corner of its evening time beauty. Objections proved futile. Complete demolishing of 'Nogorey Nishorgo' followed soon. The spot now lies crumbled in a heap of rubble, encircled by tin fences. The Science Laboratory area's 'Orgho' is feared to meet the similar fate. It is also said to have been chosen for another light-emitting billboard. As many nature-loving city residents have observed, instead of negotiating the disagreements, the complete destruction of a green spot and mulling a similar step for another does not speak of prudence. Being an entity anxious to see a beautiful Dhaka, the DSCC could have given the private agency scopes to find ways to respect the terms and conditions of the contract. That the corporation would embark on constructing these spots anew with fresh zeal banking on more advanced ideas does not sound much convincing. The prompt installation of a highly annoying night-time billboard at the space of the Tantibazar spot is a pointer to the corporation's messy handling of the matter. To many, the decision to install the billboards appears to have been prompted by commercial interest. Here crass commerce overrides aesthetics. After seeing the two roadside green spots people were waiting for more such corners in the city's other areas. Dhaka's lack of such breathing spaces is glaringly noticeable these days. What its residents have experienced, i.e. the years-long construction and then the senseless abandonment of the green corners, actually turns out to be a bad joke.
Already lacking sufficient numbers of leisure-time spaces, Dhaka needs fully operational and large green enclaves in its every part. To call Dhaka a city of poor park facilities is understatement. In truth, Dhaka has no public park at the moment except Ramna Park, built by a British Collector in 1908. Although the city witnessed the opening of several smaller parks later, they eventually fell into disuse. Thus the modest park-like installations at roadsides might finally go down in the city's history as landmark spots that could not withstand commerce-driven urban priorities.
