Bangladesh influencers push tree planting to fight record heat
- Social media influencers urge followers to plant trees
- Overcrowded Dhaka has lost green spaces and water bodies
- Saving mature trees and choosing the right types critical
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The worst heatwave in seven decades is particularly unbearable in the capital Dhaka with temperatures reaching as high as 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit) in a crowded city that has been steadily stripped of the trees, lakes and ponds that once offered its residents relief and shelter.
Now social media influencers are urging their followers to plant trees in a bid to make the city, and country, more liveable during heatwaves, which scientists say are becoming more frequent, more severe and longer because of climate change.
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"It does not make sense to plant new saplings every year if we cannot protect mature trees with large canopy that give shade and shelter to not only heat-stricken people but also to the city's birds, beasts, and insects," said Amirul Rajiv, a photographer and activist who organised a movement last year to protect hundreds of trees in the city's Dhanmondi neighbourhood.
It is also important to choose the right trees, said Mohammad Zashim Uddin, professor of botany at the University of Dhaka, noting that non-native trees like eucalyptus or acacia can harm local biodiversity.
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