by Abu Md Masani

It happened suddenly. I could manage to get leave from the office for four days for a family wedding in December. I had to go to Sherpur for this purpose.
As all I had to do was attend the wedding celebrations at night, I was thinking about how to spend my time during the day when one of my relatives mentioned this place. I had heard about Gozni many times, but had not gone there yet. My relative further enticed me, saying: “You will not be bored over there. It is a very picturesque place and you will like it.”
As I love to travel in areas that have hills, green forests and similar places of natural beauty. So after listening to him, then and there I decided to go to Gozni.
The next morning, I began my journey for Gozni from Sherpur on a CNG auto-rickshaw. After nearly one hour, I reached the beautiful tourist spot named Gozni Obokash.
On arriving there you cannot help but exclaim: “Wow! What a nice place.” A rare scenic spot in the district of Sherpur. Deep green forests can make you forget everything for a while. Now, I would like to share about my day out in beautiful Gozni.
Gozni is located in Jhenaigati, some 30km from Sherpur and is accessible by road. Gozni offers an excellent combination of picturesque natural beauty, blue sky and evergreen forest, which are really eye-catching.

 How to get there

If you want to go to Gozni tourist spot from the capital, then you can take a bus for Sherpur from Mohakhali bus terminal; a bus leaves every 30 minutes. Visitors can also go by rented car or microbus from Dhaka or elsewhere in the country. First, you have to go straight to Sherpur from Dhaka via Mymensingh. It takes only four hours from Dhaka. From northern Bangladesh, you can go via Jamalpur to Sherpur.
After reaching Sherpur, you have to change bus to go to Gozni and this means you have to go to another bus station to get a local bus. Alternatively, ask any CNG or ‘easybike’ driver that you want to go to Goni and he will take you there; it will take about 45 minutes.
 
Spots to visit

Gozni Obokash has a crescent lake (now being dredged), nice bailey bridge over the lake, monument to freedom fighters,  children’s park, ‘patalpuri’ (dragon-like tunnel in the hill),‘love lane’, dinosaur and mermaid statues, Garo Ma village, viewing tower, mini zoo, cactus garden and a century-old banyan tree. From the tower, you can see Meghalaya state of India. Also, you can get a taste of the lifestyles of tribes like Garo and Hajong. So, why be late?  Start right now, if you have a little time.
To enter the tourist spot, you will just pay Tk 10 for a gate pass per person (Tk 20 for parking), and then Tk 10 each for the various sites inside.
However, there is no scope to spend the night in Gozni. If anyone wants to stay the night at Sherpur, they will find a good number of residential hotels, with delicious food.
Mohamamd Sarwar, secretary of Gozni Bebosayee Samity (traders’ association), said Gozni Obokash was established in 1993 on 30 hectares of forest land. Basically, visitors mostly come to the spot from March to December, mostly at the weekend. He added that there has been no untoward incident there till now.       
I left the spot with a good idea about the beautiful area, which is a most attractive tourist spot in the country. If the authorities can take some steps to develop the place by providing full-time patrolling by law enforcers, security at night, accommodation  and restaurants for visitors, then the locals can earn more money from tourism.   
 
Important tips

-There is also occasional danger of wild elephants coming down from the Meghalaya hills.
-Don’t forget, Gozni Obokash is located near the Indian border. So, don’t go anywhere outside the area without precaution.