Members of Shipping and Communication Reporters Forum (SCRF) on Monday demanded an end to corruption in tree plantation, alongside protection of wetlands and afforestation and river dredging across the country. The SCRF came up with the demand while holding a human chain in front of Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) on the occasion of World Drought and Warming Day in the city’s Segunbagicha area. They also demanded taking effective measures to protect lives and nature and the life of people and agriculture, from the extreme heat waves caused by global climate change. The SCRF also urged for recovering natural wetlands, extinct rivers and lands occupied illegally, and modernization of the river communication system and tree felling in the name of development, and stop irregularities and corruption in river mining and forestry. Member secretary of Safe Waterway Implementation Movement Aminur Rasul Babul, who was present there, said droughts and heat waves will increase further in the coming years and to tackle the situation, all should have to protect the natural wetlands and forestry. He also urged to ensure adequate tree plantation on both sides of the river banks. Expressing concern, he also said the rivers cannot be protected if the inland water communication system is modernised. Noting that the government has allocated sufficient funds, the speakers from the human chain said due to rampant corruption in river dredging, the desired success was not achieved. He also demanded to stop corruption in river dredging and tree plantation projects. DRU President Mursalin Nomani said to save from global warming, tree felling should be stopped, saplings should be planted on a large scale across the country and natural forests should be protected. Presided over by SCRF President Ashish Kumar Dey, the human chain programme was moderated by Training and Research Secretary Mashiur Rahman Rubel while SCRF General Secretary Lion Jahangir Alam read out the welcome speech.

About 200 trees have been cut down at Shahjalal upasahar in the city to construct roadside drains by the Sylhet City Corporation (SCC) without any approval from the forest department. SCC workers chopped down the trees from Monday night to Tuesday afternoon, cut those into pieces and then removed those in trucks, said locals. Locals alleged that most of the felled trees have already been sold and a local syndicate is involved in it. Upon receiving the news, a team of the forest department visited the spot. Read:Students protest cutting down of old Krishnachura tree at DU, plant new one Aftab Chowdhury, the National Tree Plantation Award winner and a resident of the area, said he had planted most of the trees which have been felled. Aftab Chowdhury said, “Trees have been chopped down indiscriminately. They cut down 200 trees where about 50 trees needed to be felled. The trees could be sold at Tk one lakh each.” According to SCC’s engineering unit, construction of drains and road expansion work in 15 km area of the city started in the current fiscal year at a cost of around Tk 100 crore. Drain construction and road expansion work started on Road No. 21, 37 and 38 of C Block in Shahjalal Upasahar area recently. Trees of various species including ‘Rain tree’ were planted on both sides of these roads in the area  in 1990. According to the rules of the forest department, prior permission of the forest department is needed before cutting down trees on privately owned or government land.  If it sees tree cutting logical  after verification, then the price of the trees is fixed and permission is given on the condition of planting more trees. Read: HC turns down writ challenging tree felling at Suhrawardy Udyan Sylhet City Ranger of the Forest Department Md Shahidullah said the city corporation authorities sent a letter to the forest department on October 17  seeking permission cut down some trees to build drains on both sides of the road in the area. “When our staff went to visit the area the next day they found all trees felled.” "We are trying to find out how many trees have been cut down and where they have been taken," he said. Nur Azizur Rahman, chief engineer of the Sylhet City Corporation, said they had sent a letter to the forest department for approval . However, some workers of the city corporation cut down the trees before getting permission. We will take action against those responsible for this,” he added.

Crews with chainsaws and heavy equipment cleared their way through trees densely matted with vegetation, garbage and building debris Tuesday as searchers scoured a normally shallow creek for more flooding victims in rural Tennessee. Even cars and sheds were woven into the tangle of debris lining Trace Creek in Humphreys County, where the town of Waverly saw the most death and destruction from Saturday’s flooding that killed 18 people. Three people remained unaccounted for Tuesday. At one bridge, an excavator crawled into the creek to dig through a debris plug that included large trees, huge spools of cable, panels of wooden fencing and chunks of concrete. Officers watched from above and downstream in case a body was uncovered. Read: At least 10 killed in Tennessee flash floods; dozens missing Other crews were working with chainsaws along the banks, clearing smaller objects. Several miles downstream, officers had deployed drones to help with the search. It’s difficult to know how far the bodies might have been carried, but one car was found about a half-mile from where it had been parked, Humphreys County Chief Deputy Rob Edwards said. Sheriff’s deputies and police were aided by crews from agencies all over the state, he said. The teams have cadaver dogs at the ready if they suspect a body might be nearby. With the heat in the mid-80s and rising, it was not difficult to detect the odor of decay, Edwards said, although crews also were finding animals. As the search for the missing continues, officials have started to comprehend the scope of devastation in the community. The Humphreys County Emergency Management Agency said in a news release that more than 270 homes had been destroyed and 160 have major damage. “Some are just gone — off the foundation — twisted, turned,” Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said at the news conference. “They would probably have to be totally destroyed before they could be built back.” “The sheer devastation that we saw in that helicopter ride yesterday has made me realize that we have got an extremely long road to go in all of this,” he said. Authorities revised the confirmed death toll to 18 people Tuesday, a drop from as high as 22. Waverly police Chief Grant Gillespie said that one person in the emergency room who died of natural causes was mistakenly added to the count and John and Jane Doe victims were not crossed off the list once they were identified. Gillespie said authorities had detectives follow up on each case and confirm the numbers, which now line up with the state tally. “Just an honest mistake, and I hope everybody understands that,” Gillespie said. “It’s still a tremendous loss of life. I hope that number doesn’t grow.” Read:Death toll in floods that hit northern Turkey climbs to 70 Three people are still on the list of those missing who witnesses said they saw in the water, he said. The flooding took out roads, cellphone towers and telephone lines in the county of about 18,000 people, leaving some uncertain about whether family and friends survived the unprecedented deluge, with rainfall that more than tripled forecasts and shattered the state’s one-day record. It also left large swaths of the community about 60 miles (96 kilometers) west of Nashville suddenly displaced, leaving many to sort through difficult decisions about what comes next. GoFundMe pages sought help for funeral expenses for the dead, including 7-month-old twins swept from their father’s arms as they tried to escape. Matthew Rigney and Danielle Hall described to WTVF-TV how the water began to rage through their apartment as he held onto their twins and two other young children. “The water, when it hit us it just pulled us under, all of us and we were trapped underneath a bed,” Rigney told the station, his voice trembling behind tears. The other two children survived. “I was trying to find all of them, and Leah came up like a big girl. You swam like a big girl, and I’m so proud of you,” Rigney said to 5-year-old Maleah, who sat with her family during the interview. A neighbor helped Rigney and the two children up to the roof. Hall was ultimately rescued from a tree by boat. Read:Germany to provide $68 billion in aid for flood-hit regions School was canceled for the week, according to the sheriff’s office. Waverly Elementary and Waverly Junior High had extensive damage, according to Kristi Brown, coordinated health and safety supervisor with Humphreys County Schools. About 750 customers were without power Tuesday, down from 2,000 the night before, utility officials said. Meanwhile, the state received approval from President Joe Biden for a major disaster declaration, which frees up federal aid to help with recovery efforts in Humphreys County, the White House said in a statement Tuesday. Sheriff Davis told reporters Tuesday, “You’ve seen us get a little emotional. You have to remember, these are people we know, people’s families, people we grew up with — just the people of our small town. It’s just very close to us.”

Richard Barclay opens a metal drawer in archives of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum containing fossils that are nearly 100 million years old. Despite their age, these rocks aren’t fragile. The geologist and botanist handles them with casual ease, placing one in his palm for closer examination. Embedded in the ancient rock is a triangular leaf with rounded upper lobes. This leaf fell off a tree around the time that T-rex and triceratops roamed prehistoric forests, but the plant is instantly recognizable. “You can tell this is ginkgo, it’s a unique shape,” said Barclay. “It hasn’t changed much in many millions of years.” What’s also special about ginkgo trees is that their fossils often preserve actual plant material, not simply a leaf’s impression. And that thin sheet of organic matter may be key to understanding the ancient climate system — and the possible future of our warming planet. But Barclay and his team first need to crack the plant’s code to read information contained in the ancient leaf. Read: China dinosaur footprint fossil named after Doraemon's "Nobita" “Ginkgo is a pretty unique time capsule,” said Peter Crane, a Yale University paleobotanist. As he wrote in “Ginkgo,” his book on the plant, “It is hard to imagine that these trees, now towering above cars and commuters, grew up with the dinosaurs and have come down to us almost unchanged for 200 million years.” If a tree fell in an ancient forest, what can it tell scientists today? “The reason scientists look back in the past is to understand what’s coming in the future,” said Kevin Anchukaitis, a climate researcher at the University of Arizona. “We want to understand how the planet has responded in the past to large-scale changes in climate — how ecosystems changed, how ocean chemistry and sea levels changed, how forests worked.” Of particular interest to scientists are “ hothouse ” periods when they believe carbon levels and temperatures were significantly higher than today. One such time occurred during the late Cretaceous period (66 million to 100 million years ago), the last era of the dinosaurs before a meteor slammed into Earth and most species went extinct. Learning more about hothouse climates also gives scientists valuable data to test the accuracy of climate models for projecting the future, says Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at Georgia Tech University. But climate information about the distant past is limited. Air bubbles trapped in ancient ice cores allow scientists to study ancient carbon dioxide levels, but those only go back about 800,000 years. That’s where the Smithsonian’s collection of ginkgo leaves come in. Down a warren of corridors, Barclay hops across millennia – as is only possible in a museum – to the 19th century, when the Industrial Revolution had started changing the climate. From a cabinet, he withdraws sheets of paper where Victorian-era scientists taped and tied ginkgo leaves plucked from botanical gardens of their time. Many specimens have labels written in beautiful cursive, including one dated Aug. 22, 1896. Read:120,000-year-old fossils in Israel link to human family tree The leaf shape is virtually identical to the fossil from around 100 million years ago, and to a modern leaf Barclay holds in his hand. But one key difference can be viewed with a microscope — how the leaf has responded to changing carbon in the air. Tiny pores on a leaf’s underside are arranged to take in carbon dioxide and respire water, allowing the plant to transform sunlight into energy. When there’s a lot of carbon in the air, the plant needs fewer pores to absorb the carbon it needs. When carbon levels drop, the leaves produce more pores to compensate. Today, scientists know the global average level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is about 410 parts per million – and Barclay knows what that makes the leaf look like. Thanks to the Victorian botanical sheets, he knows what ginkgo leaves looked like before humans had significantly transformed the planet’s atmosphere. Now he wants to know what pores in the fossilized ginkgo leaves can tell him about the atmosphere 100 million years ago. But first he needs a codebreaker, a translation sheet — sort of a Rosetta stone to decipher the handwriting of the ancient atmosphere. That’s why he’s running an experiment in a forest clearing in Maryland. One morning earlier this year, Barclay and project assistant Ben Lloyd tended rows of ginkgo trees within open-topped enclosures of plastic sheeting that expose them to rain, sunlight and changing seasons. “We are growing them this way so the plants experience natural cycles,” Barclay said. The researchers adjust the carbon dioxide pumped into each chamber, and an electronic monitor outside flashes the levels every five seconds. Read:Weird ‘living fossil’ fish lives 100 years, pregnant for 5 Some trees are growing at current carbon dioxide levels. Others are growing at significantly elevated levels, approximating levels in the distant past, or perhaps the future. “We’re looking for analogues — we need something to compare with,” said Barclay. If there’s a match between what the leaves in the experiment look like and what the fossil leaves look like, that will give researchers a rough guide to the ancient atmosphere. They also are studying what happens when trees grow in super-charged environments, and they found that more carbon dioxide makes them grow faster. But adds Barclay, “If plants grow very quickly, they are more likely to make mistakes and be more susceptible to damage. ... It’s like a race car driver that’s more likely to go off the rails at high speeds.”

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday called upon all, including the leaders and workers of Awami League and its associate bodies, to plant at least three saplings to make Bangladesh a much greener country. The Prime Minister made the call while inaugurating the three-month long tree plantation campaign of Bangladesh Krishok League at her official residence Ganobhaban. The government wants to ensure overall economic development of the country keeping its environment and surroundings protected, Hasina said. Read: PM calls for massive tree plantation to save environment Hoping to see a livelier and much better environment in the country, she mentioned that the government is implementing various programmes to this end. The Prime Minister said the forestation in Bangladesh now has gone up to 22 percent from mere 7 percent due to massive afforestation across the country during her governments. Besides, gardening programmes are also on in every house of people alongside social afforestation to further advance the initiative of the government, she added. Hasina said such steps will help improve the country’s environment alongside expanding afforestation, and this is how Bangladesh will be able to set an example in the world. Read:BGMEA donates Tk5 crore to PM's fund for Covid-hit poor families

The government has taken various measures, including installation of internet of things (IoT) and bringing the entire country under a Geographic Information System (GIS) software, to make the National Emergency Service-999 more effective and speedily spread the service all over the country.   Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said this in Parliament on Monday while replying to a query from Jatiya Party MP Fakhrul Imam.   Talking about the future features to make the 999 service more effective and easier while replying to a tabled question, he said under the supervision of Bangladesh Police, the total map of the country will be brought under a modern GIS software.   “Through this, it’ll be possible to identify the emergency-providing site quickly and accurately. As a result of the GIS software, it’ll be possible to provide service under the National Emergency Service-999 specifically,” the minister said.   He also said the entire policing system will come under a modern technological system as a special feature of crime map will be included in this GIS software.

A girl was saved from rape attempt in Chattogram after she called national emergency service 999 to seek help from police on early Monday.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday asked the police personnel to gain public trust and confidence by developing themselves as the ‘force of people’.

Police have rescued a rape victim and arrested six suspects in Cumilla after receiving a call at national emergency hotline No 999.

Rajshahi, Sept 25 (UNB) – A female student of Rajshahi University (RU) was rescued by police from a house in city’s Dharampur area on Wednesday after she sought their support calling 999 to save her from ‘sexually harassment’.