Dipankar Roy

Every day during Ramadan, food enthusiasts gather in large numbers at a small outlet in front of Pioneer Women’s College on South Central Road in Khulna.

When Sathi Munda stepped up to take Bangladesh’s fifth and final penalty in the shootout against India on March 10, 2024, the fate of the SAFF Under-16 Women’s Championship title was hanging in the balance.

The killing of Sazzaduzzaman, 30, a forest officer in Cox’s Bazar, was not the first time that a forest official got killed by those involved in hill razing and tree felling in the forest areas of Cox’s Bazar.

An eight feet deep waterbody on 66-decimal land owned by Bangladesh Railway in Khulna city has allegedly been filled up by followers of a city corporation councillor. Now plans are afoot to build a park and other structures there.

Madhab Chandra Bairagi and Sourav Goldar were among the more than 500 people who were brutally killed by the Pakistani Army men at Badamtala area in Batiaghata upazila of Khulna on May 19, 1971.

When Sonaban Bibi, 62, got married 46 years ago, there was a pond next to her house, from which she managed to fetch drinking water.

Anyone in Khulna who either witnessed the Liberation War of 1971 or is aware of the regions’s war-history will shudder at the name of Gallamari mass grave.

Even three years back, vast lands would remain barren throughout most of the year in Koyra upazila of Khulna due to high level of salinity in the nearby rivers and waterbodies.

Once a mighty river, the 29-kilometre long Soilmari, which flows through Khulna’s Batiaghata upazila, is in dire need of excavation.

GKM Lutfar Rahim, regional manager of NGO Forum in Khulna, has a unique hobby -- collecting newspapers.

Citing insurmountable losses, nine jute mills in Khulna region, including the country’s second largest one, abruptly shut down operation in July 2020.

After winter ended, mosquitoes took control of Khulna, making life difficult for many city dwellers. Locals claim that the situation has been ongoing for a long time, with the authorities continuing to turn a blind eye.

After a two-month hiatus during the breeding season of crabs, fishermen set sail once more in various rivers and canals of the Sundarbans to resume their crab catching activities.

Seated on a rug in front of a closed shop on the west side of Badamtala Bazar, 61-year-old Nomita Sarkar was sorting out various local seeds.

Numerous farmers in Khulna have been successfully growing coloured cauliflowers and selling them for a handsome profit, prompting even more farmers to start cultivating this visually striking, savoury, and nutritious variant.

Hari, once a 200-metre-wide river, is now on the verge of extinction. The river was once a lifeline for the residents of at least 15 villages.

Sheikh Abu Naser Bypass Road, one of the six major roads in and out of Khulna city, used to be a boon to the area’s road connectivity.

To establish a direct connection between farmers and traders, the country’s first village supermarket (VSM) was set up in Tipna village under Khulna’s Dumuria upazila in 2015. However, the market currently remains idle.

In 1998, SM Kamrul Islam Babu, a native of Dhulgram village in Abhaynagar upazila, Jashore, badly injured both of his hands while working with a shallow machine at a fish enclosure.

From Hogolbunia of Batiaghata, Gautam Mondal often travels to Khulna city for his business. He was used to the congested, narrow footpaths of the city, lined with vendors, hawkers and beggars. With no space left for pedestrians, they were often forced to get down and walk along the roadside.