Century-old Baldha Garden still popular

The people of Dhaka run like machines in this city of brick and mortar every day to earn their livelihoods. But when they want to take a break and take their mind off of work by being in nature, people are finding it harder to do that as trees are being cut and new buildings are being built in the name of urbanization.

Along with the other parts of the city, Old Dhaka is also facing the same situation and losing its charm over time due to unplanned constructions.

However, despite all this, Baldha Garden has managed to keep its century-old charm by being a piece of green forest surrounded by concrete buildings.

Established in 1909 in the Wari area, the botanical garden housing a variety of rare species of plants collected from around the world is still popular among the people.

Baldha Garden currently has around 18,000 plants of 800 species. It is arranged in two parts — Psyche and Cybele. The word Psyche means soul and the word Cybele means goddess of nature, according to garden officials.

The garden’s Curator Taslima Khatun told The Business Post that the Psyche part’s main attractions are the Shapla houses full of red, blue, white and yellow varieties of the national flower, rare species of native-foreigner cactus, orchids, anthuriums, Bhoj Patra Tree, rare Bakula, Amazon lilies and a shade house with artificial tunnels.

Meanwhile, the main attractions of the Cybele part are shonkhonod (conch) pond, camellia, Shorno Ashok, and African Tulips. There are also Shurjo Ghori (sundials), joy houses and fern houses, she said.

Rabindranath Tagore wrote his famous Camellia poem sitting in on these joy houses after being mesmerised by the beauty of the camellia flowers here, she added.

Mentioning they are open seven days a week, Taslima said that around 300-400 people visit this garden, one of the oldest in the country, every day.

She said they also provide support to students for educational and research works apart from maintaining the garden’s natural beauty for visitors.

Located adjacent to Rajdhani Super Market, Baldha Garden sits on 3.38 acres of land. Narendra Narayan Roy Chowdhury, the zamindar of then Balda Estate which is now Gazipur district, started creating the garden in 1909 by bringing in flowers and rare plants from different countries.

Managing the garden

After Narendra Narayan Chowdhury died in 1943, the garden was supervised and managed by a trust under the control of the Calcutta High Court. In 1951, the Court of Wards was assigned to manage the garden by the Pakistani government.

But as the garden’s condition deteriorated due to poor management, the Pakistan government entrusted the job to the East Pakistan government’s Forest Department in 1962 to preserve the garden’s heritage, according to officials.

Baldha Garden is now managed by a satellite unit of the National Botanical Garden under the Forest Department.

Although the garden authorities take care of the plants, they lease the gates every year. The leaseholder sees to the entry of visitors by selling tickets at a fee fixed by the government and they cannot charge any additional money.

Curator Taslima said the entry tickets cost Tk 20 for an adult, Tk 10 per person for students on educational tours (with prior permission from the garden authorities) and Tk 5 for a child aged less than 10 years.

Baldha Garden is open seven days a week from 8am to 5pm. It remains closed for a lunch break from 12 noon to 2am every day.

Preserving the rare plants

Taslima said they have been conserving the plants of rare species using seeds and columns but faced problems with proper conservations due to environmental pollution.

She said most of the plants here are deprived of sunlight due to the high-rise buildings surrounding the garden.

Besides, the dust generated by various infrastructural developments is also adversely affecting the plants. The situation can be handled now but will become very difficult in future, she added.

She said that the Forest Department has been considering creating another garden at a suitable place under a project for the proper conservation of the rare plants. If that happens, the plants will have better protection and proper preservation.

Manpower crisis

Initially, 40 people at different levels used to take care of Baldha Garden. But the manpower has decreased over time. Currently, the garden is being overseen by only nine employees.

Taslima said, apart from her working as the curator, there are two foresters, five gardeners and a security guard who are running the day-to-day activities.

“We are working with a very small team because there is a shortage of manpower in the entire Forest Department,” she added.

During a visit to Baldha Garden, this correspondent found her remarks to be true as well as a large number of people and students from around Dhaka and elsewhere visiting the place.

Some of the visitors said the government needs to promote such a beautiful garden and develop and preserve it further to turn it into an attractive tourist spot.