A 'House Rent' for the birds!
The sentence sounds weird but the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has set a unique example by allocating Tk 3.13 lakh as a compensation for the owners of the mango orchards of Khordo Bausa village for the preservation of nests and breeding places of hundreds of Shamuk Khol (Asian Open Bill Stork) birds those have been staying on mango trees on over five bighas of land for the last five years.
By taking shelter on those mango trees, the Shamuk Khol birds are making nests and rearing their chicks without any disturb at that village under Bagha upazila. No one of the village, even the children, does not disturb the peaceful habitation of those 'Gust Birds' for the last five-year.
Those birds start to arrive in April over the same orchard and migrate to other places in November. Due to a regular visit and habitation of those birds for the last five years on the same mango trees, no mango is being produced in those trees and some trees are even dying.
It is learnt, being frustrated with the regular nesting and breeding of those Shamuk Khol birds year after year at the same orchard covering some five bighas of land, owners of the orchard were incurring a huge loss.
As a result, they started to drive those birds away last year. Such an act of driving those birds away from their nests was published in some newspapers and the High Court issued a rule to save the nests and the birds.
With the help of the Wildlife Department, RAB also rushed to the area and requested the mango farmers not to destroy those nests of those Shamuk Khol birds from the top of the mango trees
The Wild Life department officials also assured the mango orchard owners to pay compensation for the farmers for allowing the nests and the birds to stay on the trees.
At last, the mango orchard owners are going to get their compensation as the 'House Rent' of the guest birds.
A letter signed by Deputy Secretary of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry Dipak Kumar Chakravarty said, five mango orchard owners of Khordo Bausa village have been compensated a sum of Tk 3.13 lakh from the Department of Forestry as the lease money for the nests of Shamuk Khol birds on the mango orchard.
Five owners of the orchards have been identified as-Monjur Rahman, Sanar Uddin, Shahadat Hossain, Shafiqul Islam and Faruk Anwar, all are of Khordo Bausa village.
Mihir Kumar Dey, Conservator of Forests of Dhaka, Zillur Rahman, Rajshahi Divisional Forest Officer, Mehedi Hasan, Assistant Conservation of Forest of Rajshahi Social Forestry Dept, Wildlife and Biodiversity Conservation Officer Rahat Hossain, Wildlife Ranger Helim Raihan and Inspector of Wildlife Zahangir Kabir visited the Khordo Bausa village of Bagha on Saturday.
They also exchanged views with the orchard owners and the local people.
Owners of the mango orchard were also happy to learn about the allocation of fund for their compensation from the government. The fund will be handed over to them through a brief function by the Upazila Nirbahi Officer of Bagha soon.