According to the natural tradition, in the first week of the Bengali month of Boishakh, the ripe seeds of ‘Shimul’ (Red silk-cotton, Bombax ceiba) bursts and the cotton emerges in the air. Every year the people of the village wait for this time.
They are now busy picking shimul seeds from the trees already even before they burst. There is no alternative to shimul cotton in making pillow. Hence, the price is also high.
It is known that not only cotton but also many other parts of shimul trees are used in various ways. At one time this purple shimul flower was used to make natural red color. Shimul flowers, bark, roots are also used in making yunani medicine. There was a time shimul trees could be seen everywhere in rural Bangladesh. On the arrival of the Bengali month of Fagun, the shimul branch used to be newly decorated.
Inside the green forest, the red shimul flowers would look like fire flakes. Shimul flowers have been adorning nature since the ancient time as the messenger for the arrival of spring. Not only beauty, shimul tree has many benefits and economic importance. However, the eternal form of shimul flower of the villages is not very visible today.
Shimul wood is used in match factory for making matches and handles of various brushes in addition to high quality fuel. Lately, due to the increase in the prices of other timber, various types of furniture are also being made with shimul wood. However, there is no initiative to increase the number of shimul trees and it is becoming extinct day by day.
In the seventies, the market price of shimul cotton was Tk 200-300 per ounce, but now it is being sold at around Tk 12-15 thousand per ounce. Flowers can be seen in the trees within 9 to 10 years of natural growth from seed. The beautiful red petals of the beautiful shimul flower cannot escape the attention of the people. Shimul trees survive for centuries after dealing with natural disasters. Shimul tree blooms in spring. Precious cotton is obtained from its fruit.
At least two to two and a half maunds of cotton is obtained from a large shimul tree every year. In the market shimul cotton is sold at Tk 300 per kg with a market price of Tk 24-30 thousand.
It can be seen that there are no red flowers in shimul trees now. The trees are now adorned with light copper colored shimul fruits. In the meantime, white cotton is flying in the sky from the fruit of some trees. This has created another amazing scene. Men, women and children of the village are busy collecting the fruits to get cotton.
Many villagers have come to collect fruits from a huge shimul tree in Chowdhurani area of Pirgachha upazila in Rangpur. Some are climbing trees, some are collecting shimul fruits with long bamboos.
Asma Khatun from the area said, “We are poor people, we can't afford to buy them. We can sleep keeping head on the pillow at home because we have direct access to the cotton.”
Osman Gani from the same area collects cotton every year and sells it in the market. He said that from the end of the Bengali month of Chaitra to the first week of the month of Boishakh, the fruits burst and the cotton is seen flying. Cotton can be obtained by collecting fruits before this period and drying them in the sun for two-three days.
He lamented that even though the government and the private sector have planted forest and fruit trees along the roadside, there is no initiative for planting shimul trees. As a result, this tree with financial benefits is getting lost day by day.
In the Shahidbagh area of Kaunia upazila, some tree owners were collecting copper colored shimul fruits. Speaking on the occasion, Golzar Hossain said, shimul tree grows only after cutting the branches and planting them.
He planted a few pulses to demarcate the land. However, due to the negligence of a class of lazy people in the region, due to untimely collection of fruits from the shimul tree, the valuable cotton is blown away while it is still in the tree. There are several families in and around Rangpur who sell the cotton collected from shimul to support their families.
According to the Department of Agriculture, about 30 shimul trees can be planted in one bigha of fallow land. The tree bears flowers in the month of Magh-Falgun and the fruits ripen in the middle of the months Chaitra and Boishakh. It is possible to earn huge amount of money in a year by collecting and selling cotton from the seeds of these trees.
