Bant: Without trees, life is impossible on earth. Madan Mohan Das, a resident of Nimagadhia (Jirina) village under Bant block in Bhadrak district, has perhaps understood it well.
A daily labourer, Madan has devoted his entire life for the cause of maintaining greenery in his village. It is his round the clock labour of the last 17 years for which the jungle on the west of his village which once used to be a sparse one has transformed into a dense forest. And the villagers are never in two minds in giving credit to Madan.
Nimagadhia village has a small jungle towards its west. At one point, it used to have only a few trees and some bushes. When Madan realised the importance of trees, he started planting saplings in the village jungle and maintaining them. Now the jungle has become cause of jealousy for nearby villages. This jungle has now 150 types of trees.
What ails Madan most is trees being sacrificed at the altar of development. “For road expansion, trees are being chopped. For laying up new roads, trees are being chopped. And for any developmental projects, it is none else than the trees that are being chopped,” he says.
“The situation has come to such a pass that pedestrians are not getting any shade to take rest by the roadside. Birds and animals are the worst sufferers. In order to inculcate the importance of trees in the minds of millennials, I have been trying my best,” he adds.
He has established the goddess of jungle (Vana Devi) in the jungle and been worshipping her every year on the occasion of Magha Saptami. Some likeminded young men help him organise the annual event.
“The government has been spending crores of rupees in afforestation. But my small village forest has not been fortunate enough to attract any of the forest department officials,” Madan rues.
Madan, who is locally known as tree man (Gachha Manisha), owns 12 ‘gunth’ farmland. But he barely managed to cultivate it owing scarcity of time. He runs his family by working as a daily labourer and domestic help.
