Lotuses in Khulna's Padma Beel a spellbinding beauty

OUR CORRESPONDENT
KHULNA, Oct 17: Blooming pink lotuses in the Bhutia's Padma Beel in Terokhada upazila of Khulna district have now become a special attraction to the nature lovers.
Several hundred sightseers from nearby towns and Khulna city come to visit the water body on their holidays to enjoy its mesmerising beauty.
Some with family members and some with friends and also school or college students visit here from adjoining different villages.
Pictures and writings on the eye-catching sights of this water body go easily viral on the social media as well.
On the other hand, based on the visit of the nature-loving people here, some locals in the areas adjacent to Padma Beel find their way to earn livelihoods.
They consider the money earned from local tourists as very much essential for their survival during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Md Javed Iqbal, deputy chief information officer of Khulna Regional Information Office, said in the wake of the global epidemic, he along with his family came to visit Padma Beel in north Khulna to enjoy its natural beauty to remove fatigue in the leisure time.
After visiting around all day in a clean environment with family members, Md Javed Iqbal, fascinated by the beauty of Padmabill, said, "Only Padma Bill is the direction where the two eyes go. Really the scenes here are eye-catching.
A seasonal tourist spot can be built centring this water body which remains filled with blooming lotuses all around, he added.
If used in a planned way, it could be an opportunity for some poor people in the waterlogged and unborn area to earn some extra income, he observed.
Fascinated by the beauty of the lotus flower, a house wife Shampa Gain came to the Padma Bill.
She said, "The beauty of the lotus in this bill and the taste of the fish in this bill greatly attract the people of the city." According to her, building a tourist centre by utilising the natural beauty of the bill can create income opportunities for the people in the adjacent waterlogged areas.
Padma Beel is widely known as Bhuter Beel in Terokhada Upazila of Khulna and some parts of Kalia upazila of Narail.
For want of a proper drainage system, water logging is created in this bill every year. The bill extends up to an area of around 3,500 hectares. And lotus flower blooms in an area of around 50 to 60 hectares.
And the whole Beel is full of algae and weeds. There are about 22 villages around this Beel. The water of the beel is mainly drained out into the Atharobaki and Chitra rivers. But the rivers are dead now. The canals flowing for a while through the Beel have been filled.
It is said at one time there were seen a lot of water hyacinths in this bill. These were used to make rotting gas. And at night the gas would burn. From a distance, the residents of the bank of the Beel thought that ghosts were burning.
Thus the Beel has changed over time. The fire has not been burning for the last few years. However, the lotus has begun to bloom. Since the lotus is blooming in the Beel now, the name of the ghost Beel has been changed to Padma Beel.
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