Students save old Mahoganies

Protest by students has forced authorities of a school in Natore to shelve their plan of selling Mahogany trees that dotted the school’s landscape for over two decades.

Students of Bagatiparha Pilot High School on Saturday morning literally held on to the trunks of the twelve 26-year old trees that stood on the southern fringe of the school premises.

The authorities had planned to auction the Mahoganies to set up shops in their place.

The students also formed a human chain on the street in front of their school holding festoons that read – ‘We want to save these trees! We won’t let them die!”

The authorities’ decision to sell the trees is against our wishes, said ‘Kiron’, ‘Motalib’ and ‘Abir’, students of the school.

“We play under the shades of these trees during our off time, said Kiron.

The trees protect students from the sun, he said.

“This is a private school,” said assistant headmaster Abdus Salam. “I work under the school’s management committee. Please don’t ask me for a comment.”

“We took help from locals to plant those trees when we were students in 1988,” said Al Mamun, a college instructor and an alumnus of the school.

The headmaster and the chairman of the management committee arrived at the school at 11am. They were soon approached by present and former students who sternly protested the decision.

In the face of strong protest, headmaster Abdul Mojid at one point said, “Okay, I will not consider selling them again.”

Ruhul Amin Sarkar, a member of the management committee, also gave a similar assurance.