(This article is part of our special series 'Rethinking Bangladesh'. You can read the editorial note to the series here.)
At a time when Dhaka city is slowly being stripped bare of its precious greenery, as mindless landfilling goes unabated with a huge number of trees already felled for building homes, the government entities who are supposed to fight for saving breathing spaces have been caught napping, failing to allay worries of environmentalists. Besides, newspaper reports on 'modernising' a historical park – Suhrawardy Udyan – by uprooting hundreds of old trees have only fuelled speculation that the authorities hardly care for the city environment.
For decades, disregard for protecting the greenery has remained a major cause of concern for the millions of people who call Dhaka – one of the fastest-growing megacities in the world – their home. The concern stem from the fact that hardly any part of Dhaka could save itself from the greed for profit which has come under the garb of different housing and development projects.