Villagers adopt trees in memory of village leaders in Manipur

Maram, April 6: At times when the northeastern state of Manipur is facing the issue of severe deforestation, a village authority in the state in association with the police started to adopt trees around a market place at Maram, a hill town.

Trees growing in the heart of Maram Bazar Town are adopted in remembrance of village pioneers, elders and leaders who are no more besides the institutes is an effort to save the growing trees and propagate awareness on the importance of tree plantations, said caretaker chairman Pungdi P Celestine of Maram Bazar Village Authority (MBVA),

Maram Bazar, 80 km north of Imphal in Manipur’s Senapati district, is an important commercial hub for many communities after Senapati town for their daily commercial activities. The National Highway 2 also passes through the middle of the market.

“The purpose of the initiative is to give awareness to the different communities visiting the market on a daily basis. We believe that they’ll tell the story of what they saw in the market when they go back to their respective places,” Pungdi, a former student leader said.

The adoption of trees in the names of the pioneer village elders and leaders is aimed to remember and honour those deserving ones to place them in the sight of the public and continue to celebrate their past lives while for adoption in name of institutions is to engage their staffs to make them love the trees and nature.

The adoption in the name of civil society is to encourage the community to advocate for a green environment in public places besides involving their members in such initiatives.

"As we remember their names we can give more importance in preserving & nurturing trees in their memory," the student leader said, adding, "So far we've adopted 45 trees around the Maram bazar and boards with various slogans of advocating conservation of trees were fixed with the trees while adoptees take a pledge to take care and save the growing trees."

The trees which were adopted in the name of prominent leaders of Maram tribes including former minister Ng Luikang, church leader Kuba Dominic etc and other institutes were planted to create importance of trees when Pungdi was president of Maram Students’ Union in 2009.

"In the next phase we're also planning to adopt trees in the school premises along with the highways and some other places," he felt.

On the adoption of tree in her father’s name in front of her house, Doibila Mazarello daughter of late Kuba Dominic, a church leader, said, “I feel grateful for organising such campaign in preserving the environment because it encourages the community to plant trees-like my late father always encourage organic produce & greenery. That is the inspiration I felt about my father who always taught us and the community.”

It is to be mentioned that Manipur recorded the largest loss in forest cover (249 sq kms), according to the biennial India’s state of forest report 2021.