SAJEK : PARADISE UNDER PRESSURE

Illustrated by Arif Iqbal

Sajek Valley is a scenic hill destination location in the Rangamari District of Bangladesh, known for its sunning view, cloud-covered hills and indigenous culture.Nature insights had the pleasure to go into a deep conversation with this paradise on earth. 

Nature Insights :  Welcome to a not-so-casual chat between your truly ‘Nature Insights’, Your  overly enthusiastic nature geek and the one and only Sajek Valley! …… a Dramatic, slightly grumpy, but undeniably fabulous piece of landscape. 

Sajek : Dramatic? Slightly grumpy? Undeniably fabulous? Hmph. At least you got one thing right.” 

Nature Insights : What’s the matter? How are you? 

Sajek : What’s the matter? Just asking how you are and then silence? Don’t you want to address me with titles like uncle, grandfather or great grandfather? 

Nature Insights : Yes! I would have addressed you with one of the terms, but I don’t know your gender. Rivers are compared to woman; mountains are compared to man- but one ever mentioned a valley, so I am not sure. 

Sajek : Tell me what beautiful object in this world is ever compared to a man?     Even Lord Byron when speaking about beauty wrote She walks in beauty! 

Nature insight : Ok, let me address you as brother. 

Sajek : What? You don’t think I am beautiful? 

Nature insights : What do you think? 

Sajek : …. Silent…. Well maybe 20-30 years ago, now with all these resorts and tourists polluting all around me, I don’t feel that confident about how beautiful I look. I remember when people of all ages would just flock to me to witness how beautiful I look, but now they come and they curse, they pollute, they destroy…. (weeps) 

Nature Insights : Hey hey! What happened?  

Sajek : I feel ug-ly… UGLY! 

Nature insights : … (gives a few moment… Sajek stops weeping), how do you feel now? 

Sajek : Aren’t you wearing your prescribed glasses? Can’t you see how I am? I am now a dump. Bangladesh’s biggest natural dump. In your dirty city you have cleaners, I don’t even have them. And my children, all the floras and faunas now have to live with the trash you leave. 

Nature insights : You are getting too serious; all the resort owners and hoteliers are spending millions to make you look better.  

Sajek : No, I looked better. These people are coming from the city and trying to make me look like a city.  

Nature Insights : Think of the tourists, how they praise you! 

Sajek : What praise, the other day one guy was cursing because he saw a snake, you tell me did the snake invaded his private space or did he invaded the snakes habitat? 

Nature insights : You are so vast, one person talking about one snake surely won’t make you feel bad. 

Sajek : I am only vast now; do you know how much of me is land grabbed already? To do this how many local villages were destroyed?  

Nature insights : I think you need to be more optimistic. 

Sajek : Oh yeah, I am optimistic.  

Nature insights : Really? 

Sajek : Sure of course, the way you two legged apes are destroying your planet, you might be here for a fiction of time. You see, I was here when the dinosaurs were here, when other species thrived, mammals arrived, your ancestors arrived. And I will be here when you are gone. So, my sadness is just temporary. Though I wish you were treating your environment better, so your species could have lived longer. 

Nature Insights : Okay, okay... that got dark real quick. But maybe there's still some Hope? 

Sajek : Hope? Hmm. Let’s talk about that new “eco-resort” they’re building. You know, the one where they had to flatten a whole hill and evict a local indigenous village to make it “eco-friendly.” Real classy stuff. 

Nature Insights : Wait, wasn’t that the one they posted on social media with hashtags like #WokeWithNature and #HealingVibesOnly? 

Sajek : Yes! And guess what? They dumped all their construction debris into my stream. Healing vibes, my roots. 

Nature Insights : Yikes… okay, what about awareness campaigns? Weren’t there tree-planting drives? 

Sajek : They planted 50 trees. Great, right? Then they cut down 200 to build a parking lot for the “Sajek Selfie Spot.” Because who needs oxygen when you have filters? 

Nature Insights : That’s rough. Have you tried, like… going viral? 

Sajek : I was viral. Remember when I trended for my misty mornings and green hills? Now people come, shout into the silence, leave plastic chips bags, and call it “peaceful retreat.” I feel like a poorly managed zoo where nature is forced to perform for TikTok. 

Nature Insights : I guess no one asks how the valley feels… 

Sajek : Exactly! I don’t need millions of tourists. I need Respect. I need space. I need silence. And maybe a clean-up crew that doesn’t just show up on Earth Day with matching t-shirts and take selfies with a broom. 

Nature Insights : You’re right. I came here to understand you, and I really wasn't listening. But I’m listening now. What do you want people to know? 

Sajek : Tell them I’m not a theme park. I’m a living ecosystem. Tell them that the birds, the trees, the clouds that touch my hills, they’re not props, their life. And once they're gone…...so is the magic.  

And maybe, just maybe, if people care enough to protect what’s left, we won’t have to meet again in a history book under the chapter “Lost Landscapes.” 

Nature Insights : (quietly) Got you! Message received. Loud and clear. Thank you, Sajek. 

Sajek : Don’t thank me. Just do better. For once, leave a place better than you found it.