Betel leaves on 7 more bighas 'torched'
Betel leaves on seven more bighas of land in Kaliganj upazila of Jhenidah district were 'torched' yesterday.
The incident took place at Balarampur village at around 3:30pm. Villagers brought the blaze under control after two hours of frantic efforts.
The affected farmers are Tapan Kumar Das, Chandi Kumar Das, Bishnu Kumar Das, Ganesh Chandra Das, Shasti Chandra Das, Laxmi Chandra Das, Bikash Kumar Das, Ashok Kumar Das, and Rabindra Nath Bishnu.
“I saw smoke in a betel leaf garden of Ganesh Chandra Das at around 3:30pm. The fire spread very fast to the adjacent gardens and gutted betel worth about Tk 30 lakh,” said Akbar Ali, an elderly resident of Balarampur village.
This was the fifth arson attack on betel leaf gardens in the upazila since February this year. The latest attack was made on March 9 on around 500 bighas of land in four villages of the upazila, destroying betel leaves worth about Tk 20 crore.
Betel leaves on 60 bighas of land were torched on February 9, on 20 bighas of land on February, 20, on 50 bighas of land on February 22, and on 500 bighas of land on March 9 at Raigram and Dulalmundia village in Kaliganj upazila of the district.
The mystery behind the fire incident that caused indescribable loss to the farmers is yet to be unearthed.
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