Prof. Lutfor Rahman

It has come to our notice from a report published in a national daily in its issue on August 12, 2009 that 3000 trees out of 5000 died in a garden in Dinajpur. The pictures of the dead trees were also in the newspaper. Reports have also come as the deaths of trees are common in other areas of North Bengal. The local farmers and researchers of a Bangladesh research institute commented that the death of the trees might be due to the growth of fungi. It is actually difficult even for the experts to predict the reasons of death without making any experiment.

The causes of death may be something else if we take the steps from some other aspects. Many regions in north Bengal, particularly the banks of the rivers -- Padma, Meghna, Jamuna, Titas, Brahmaputra and others are rich in mineral resources like zircon, ilmenite, rutile, garnet, magnetite etc. They are in solid forms as compound of several elements including sands.

As a former employee of the U.S. Geological Survey (U.S. Govt.) and the background of Geophysicist, this writer should request the concerned authority of the present government to make an investigation on the regions in order to ascertain the exact reasons of death of the trees that might bring a tremendous economic change for the nation. According to Geochemists, death of many trees in the same region indicates the presence of huge of minerals and they may be very costly and important like diamond and uranium.

It is a very interesting process; the trees soak up the minerals along with water that they can digest but the minerals are not digested. Rather they deposit inside the trees days after days and destroy the lives of the trees. Only the well-experienced geochemists can predict the existence of the minerals but they cannot foretell the quantity and the names of the minerals present at that stage. Next steps are very interesting and exciting which the Bangladeshi experts can perform.

The writer is a former employee of US Geological Survey (US Govt), former vice chancellor of Sc. & Tech Varsity and a freedom fighter. He may be

contacted at email: lutfor@agni.com