Every one of us wishes
to have a lash green garden. Who doesn’t? It adds beauty to our home and
becomes the neighbour’s envy and owner’s pride! This time the grasses were
growing for a longer period in our backyard. This happens quite often as I find
little time left for managing the house and keeps forgetting to call the person
to clean the backyard. In spite of rubu’s repeated reminding jokingly that the grasses
are getting taller and taller and that
even tiger’s may hide behind them, I was somewhat neglecting the issue.
My hubby always thinks
that I am a bit over enthusiastic who wants to convert the house to a zoo !
He is sometimes irritated
that the barandahs are sometimes filled with grasses or the small twigs that
keeps on falling from the nests of the sparrows or that long slender brush like
branches peeps from overhead. He advises
me to clear the nests as soon as the baby sparrows or the mynahs fly away. I
always answer in affirmative and say next time pukka promise ! Which I conveniently
forgets every time J ! Even if I remember,
next year they again comes!
But of course I have to call people to clean
up the bathroom exhaust fan of guest room, after each season of nesting. Though
usually I become deaf if someone in the household complains about a peculiar
smell or about the twigs dirtying the bathroom.
On the night before it had rained heavily. After I awoke I immediately went backyard to
take a snap of the raindrops that falls on the hedges. After taking a few snaps
I was just sitting on the barandah, when some movement in the tall grass caught
my attention. I waited with a batted breath, praying frantically, hoping it’s
not rubu’s tiger ! To my utter surprise a small bird suddenly flew away with a
long grass in her beak, which was longer than it! Before I could click my
shutter it vanished with the green grass trailing behind !
I waited patiently for it to comeback. I could almost hear my own heartbeat, as I was trying to go as
near to the grasses as possible and
sitting, trying not to make any
sound or movement. To my utter relief it came again and many
more times . Each time to take one more grass or feather to our barandah or
bathroom exhaust !
I was always fascinated
by the beautiful images of Humming bird’s pictures ! Oh ! if only I could take one
of them. But where on earth you will find them ? Waking up at 5am is dreaded by
most of us, but , I was reading an interesting book with my camera nearby.
Suddenly I saw a movement in the ashoka plant. Only a leaf was dipping. Without
any thought I zoomed the lense and started clicking.
I didn’t have slightest
idea what it could be as I couldn’t see anything from the distance and nothing
was visible except the leaf dropping.
After I downloaded the pictures in my laptop and expanded. Wow ! Unbelievable it was a hummingbird !
Few months ago we have
come to know about a person named Jadav Payeng aka Mulai. He was there in the
news papers, TV , and articles, who had been planting trees in a forest in a remote village in
Majuli district of Assam and taking care
of it for the last 30 years, inspite of people belittling him. He
started living in the forest itself so that he can care for them as his own
children. Situated near the bank of
river Brahmaputra it covers now an area of 550 hectors. In 1979, Jadav, then a
16 yrs old boy, had seen that large number of reptiles had died after floods
washed them onto the tree less sand bar.
One day, after the waters
had receded, Payeng , found the place dotted with the dead reptiles. That was
the turning point of his life. The
snakes and reptiles died because of heat
and barrenness of the place.
"The
snakes died in the heat, without any tree cover. I sat down and wept over their
lifeless forms. It was carnage. I alerted the forest department and asked them
if they could grow trees there. They said nothing would grow
there. Instead, they asked me to try growing bamboo. It was painful, but I did
it. There was nobody to help me. Nobody was interested," says Payeng, who
is 47 now.
He left his home, education,
and started living in the sand bar so that he could start planting and watered them morning and
evening. After a few years , the sand bar was transformed in to a bamboo
thicket. "I then decided to grow proper
trees. I collected and planted them. I also transported red ants from my
village, and was stung many times. Red ants change the soil's properties . That
was an experience," Payeng says, laughing.
Soon, there were a variety of flora and fauna which burst in the sandbar, including endangered animals like the one-horned rhino and Royal Bengal tiger. "After 12 years, we've seen vultures. Migratory birds, too, have started flocking here. Deer and cattle have attracted predators," claims Payeng
Soon, there were a variety of flora and fauna which burst in the sandbar, including endangered animals like the one-horned rhino and Royal Bengal tiger. "After 12 years, we've seen vultures. Migratory birds, too, have started flocking here. Deer and cattle have attracted predators," claims Payeng
Now that once-barren sand bar is a sprawling 1,360 acre forest, “Mulai kathani”
( মোলাই কাঠনি ) or Mulai’s forest, as the locals named the place
after his pet name, houses , Bengal tigers, Indian rhinoceros, deers, rabbits,
apes, varities of birds,vultures, many valuable trees. A large herd of
elephants regularly visits the forest home to several thousands of varieties of trees
and an astounding diversity of wildlife .
Mulai’s forest was
accidently detected , when the
forest department officials came in
search of a 115 elephant herd , which damaged
property in Aruna chapori, and retreated into the forest, which was
around at a distance of 1.5 kms. They were really surprised to see such a huge
forest.
Mulai is now eager to go to other places of the
state and start another venture. His aim is now to spread his forest to another
sand bar inside of Brahmaputra River. He lives in a hut in the forest with his
wife and 3 children. He has a small farm and selling milk is his only source of
income. Though he has lost around 100 of his cows and buffaloes to the
tigers of the forest, still he blames
the large encroachments and destruction of the forest by the villagers, for the
plight of the animals.
Jadav Payeng
was honoured at a public function arranged by the School of Environmental
Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University on 22nd
April, 2012 for his remarkable achievement. JNU vice-chancellor
Sudhir Kumar Sopory named Jadav Payeng as "Forest Man of India". In
the month of October 2013, he was honoured at Indian Institute of Forest
Management during their annual event Coalescence.
Various documentaries
has been made on him till now. William Douglas
McMaster a Canadian cinematographer
made a documentary film in 2013 “ Forest Man “ on Jadav paying and his work on Mulai Forest . This Documentary will be
displayed at 2014 Cannes Film Festival. You can view the trailer in you tube
Arati Srivastava
has alos made a documentary on Jadav Payeng.
The
Shanmukhananda Fine Arts & Sangeetha Sabha, a Mumbai-based charitable
trust, has conferred seven ’Diamond Awards’ on people "who by dint of
devotion to duty and exceptional commitment to the field of pursuit have added
to the goodness reservoirs of our ancient land, Most of them have been unseen,
unsung but have gone about their work, despite hardships inflicted upon them by
the system, one of the awardees had been Mr. Jadav Payeng. Five of the seven
awardees have been selected on the basis of TOI reports.
Jadav Mulai has
been repeatedly awarded accolades for his efforts. Today, the inhabitants of
the villages near the forest are proud of the work that has been done but the
early years were not easy for Mulai. In fact, after some elephants destroyed a
village many people blamed Mulai for what had happened and he had to ask for
help and protection from the forest department. When the villagers asked to cut
down the Forest, he said he will kill himself instead of the trees.
Today his new
goal is to recommence a second bio diverse forest in another sand bar island in
the Brahmaputra River and teach the world the priceless heritage of
biodiversity.
Thanks to Mani
Phukan Sir’s writing I was able to write about this man which I was thinking to
write for some time.
His incredible work, insights, perseverance
and strength may provide us the extra boost to accomplish our treasured dreams!
Each one of us
may not be as passionate as Mulai, but definitely we can teach our younger
generation to plant trees care more for our eco-system and help the Earth
become greener.
At night we often fall asleep hearing the calling of
the barking deer at our backyard, or the elephant screaming, which come down
from deopahar range. When I wake in the morning by the chirpings of the mynah
or bulbul, or the cuckoo , I feel rejuvenated
for the day’s work.
I belief by- “if
you can’t be an oak
Be a sapling
If you can’t be a sapling
Be a grass!
But be a lively green one!
No comments:
Post a Comment