Kartik Pramanik

 

Kartik Pramanik planting more trees and encouraging others to follow his lead; Tarapur village in Monakosha union under Chapainawabganj's Shivpur upazila. PHOTO: STARThe farmers and rural areas are abound with the stories of success and development that was once envisaged and featured by Channel I's 'Hridoye Mati O Manush' programme and today, they seem to have come to reality. One of these petite stories has turned into a revolution, of which Kartik Pramanik is the main character.
Dear readers, I hope you remember a winter morning at Tarapur village in Monakosha union under Chanpainawabganj's Shivpur upazila nine years back in 2004 where a rugged nature had turned into a tranquil locality with greenery. Much of its credit goes to Kartik Pramanik, an ordinary man. A barber by profession, his inner statements still ring into the ears.
I was quite amazed speaking with this legendary man who made the entire region green by planting trees.
“If humans don't pray for me, the animals and birds will. God will love me if they do. That's the objective of my life”, says Kartik. “Please plant trees. If you plant at least 10 trees and only two of them survive, nurture those two”, that is still the motto of Kartik.
Kartik Pramanik was awarded with the Krishi Padak back in 2007. Back then, he urged for a road to be constructed. His dream was all about better infrastructure that would make life easy for all.
On Kartik's earnest request, the government constructed his dream road, through which the image of Monakosha union under Chanpainawabganj's Shivpur upazila changed for good. We went to the locality four years after the construction. I have heard a lot about this infrastructure, how it has been helping numerous farmers to transport and market their agricultural produce. Now we can see concrete buildings, instead of only clay huts. The development in people's livelihoods is pretty apparent.
Greenery on both side of the road is Kartik's sole contribution but this minor gift has changed the image of the entire neighborhood.

A conversation with one of the locals: Has this road been useful for transporting your agricultural goods? Certainly it has. Could you elaborate? People don't have to wait anymore. It's easier to move around now.
The entire region was like the desert, full of sand. Now it has transformed into a greener landscape because of the hardship by Kartik and his great environmental entrepreneurship program.
However I came to learn the tragic reality from the locals. The dream road looks terrible at some points now. The locals reported that the lack of discipline and supervision brought a dreadful condition within such a short period of time.
Today, Kartik enjoys the view of overall development of this locality. But his dream doesn't stop here. They want to expand further. It's really uncer

tain whether if anyone's actually thinking about the development of this locality like Kartik Pramanik. It's certain that the Government and the Policymakers will someday notice Kartik's dreams and desires. Many people of different ages were around when I visited Kartik's village, including students from schools and colleges. I enquired many of them about Kartik Pramanik. What does Kartik Pramanik do? He plants trees, was the simple response.
Dear readers, a man can single handedly change a community regardless of his location; breed dreams in people's eyes and bring the expected changes. Today, while we are being blinded by politics, self centric personalities and fame, then there is Kartik Pramanik; who shows us at the end of the tunnel.