GAURIPUR, May 28 - During the period of the second term of the AGP rule, the Gauripur Town Committee adopted an ambitious plan to turn Gauripur town into a �neem� town and make it a totally pollution-free one. For this reason, the committee planted neem tree saplings in and around the municipal area, specially around the historic Mahamaya playground and rounded up the saplings by bamboo fencings. But due to the negligence and utter apathy of the authority, the saplings dried up due to lack of proper maintenance and the bamboo fences were damaged by the stray cows grazing in the fields.
Late Narendra Nath Goswami, DFO, Social Forestry, Dhubri during his tenure planted valuable saplings of different varieties of trees on the banks of the historic Mahamaya tank in 1986-87 but a few years after his tenure was over, the municipal authority mercilessly cut down the growing trees for construction of stairs along the eastern bank of the tank by spending nearly Rs 60 lakh. Presently, these stairs have also got totally damaged as they are covered by the tank�s water during the summer season.
Various organisations on different occasions executed an agenda of planting trees in and around the town and their noble attempts were also highly applauded but after a few weeks these organisations also forgot to nurse the saplings and as a result their attempts failed to yield any positive results.
Late Prakritish Chandra Barua, the second son of Raja Prabhat Chandra Barua of the erstwhile Gauripur Royal Estate and an elephant expert of Asia, planted a large number of saplings of valuable and fruitful trees on the roadside of the town but after his death no one was seen interested in taking care of these trees. Rather these trees were cut down for widening of the roads and construction of dwelling houses for the residents.
Neither the town committee nor any other organisations have been seen coming forward to look into the matter. Conscious citizens and the lovers of nature apprehend that one day Gauripur will turn into a polluted town where people will not find a single big and tall tree to take shelter during the the hot summer days.
