The sculptures installed across the capital to beautify the city or highlight the identity of places have received little regular maintenance.
Some have lost their paint, some have exposed iron frames where parts have broken off, while others stand amid garbage and dirt.
A striking example sits beside the lake in Banani, on Road 35, just before the Banani 11 bridge: a group including one tiger, three deer, one horse and two zebras.
Paint has peeled off their bodies, exposing patches of white plaster, and one has a broken leg with a rusted metal rod protruding, resting on a worn concrete block.
The Banani Society said the road falls under Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC).
When contacted, DNCC’s Executive Engineer of the Environment, Climate and Disaster Management Circle, Mohammad Abul Kashem, referred the matter to Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK), which also declined responsibility.
Elsewhere, an elephant sculpture stands at the Science Laboratory Intersection on Elephant Road, installed years ago to reflect the road’s name: a mother elephant and calf, trunks raised skyward.
Both tusks of the larger elephant have broken off, with black wires visible through the damaged sections; a rusted screw is stuck at the smaller elephant’s tusk base, and reddish stains mark its trunk.
Grass has grown through gaps in the stone platform, the old green-and-white coating has deteriorated, and years of dust, rain, sun and pollution, combined with no maintenance, have peeled the paint away.
The sculpture falls under Ward 18, Zone 1, of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC).
DSCC Executive Engineer of the Environment, Climate and Disaster Management Circle Saiful Islam Joy said, “The maintenance of these sculptures is assigned to third-party organisations under the beautification programme by the city corporation’s revenue department. These organisations pay a certain amount of revenue to the city corporation.”
He said this arrangement had remained suspended for a long time after 2020, and the issue is now being reviewed again with renewed attention following the elections.
The neglect is also visible at Farmgate, where the “Fish Sculpture” next to Ananda Cinema Hall is almost hidden behind greenery. Created in 2005 by artist Hamiduzzaman Khan for Dhaka City Corporation, the steel piece depicts three fish symbolising Bangladesh’s fisheries and aquatic life.
Its fountain basin is now filled with dark, stagnant water, dry leaves, plastic bags and other waste, with dirt built up on the steel surface. It falls under DNCC’s Tejgaon Zone, or Zone 5.
For now, the tiger with the broken leg, the elephant with shattered tusks, and the fish hidden behind garbage remain where they are: silent witnesses to a city that has stopped noticing them.
