By Birendra Dutt Godiyal
The Samlaun movement for environmental protection was inspired by the writer’s father, Dataram Godiyal, a retired Forest Officer, and Padma Shri Awardee Kalyan Singh Rawat, pioneer of the Guru Maiti movement. It began on 15 July, 2000, with a simple planting of saplings on the occasion of students’ birthdays at the Janta Junior High School, Patuli, in Thailsain block of Garhwal District. Later, with the help of students, a nursery was established in the school, itself, named Samlaun nursery. The idea was to have a Samlaun forest in the near future. Today, there are more than 500 different species of plants and trees in the Samlaun forest like mango, guava, lemon, sweet lime, bay leaf, bottlebrush, oak, jamun, surahi, cedar etc. Samlaun saplings are planted in the memory of great personalities.
In the year 2010, the Samlaun Western Nayar Valley Environment Protection Committee was formed, by which youth conferences from primary to postgraduate level are organised in educational institutions at various places to generate environmental awareness among students, and educate them on environmental protection. Besides these programmes, various types of environmental related competitions are also organised. The successful participants are awarded prizes.
To carry forward the Samlaun movement at the rural level, the Samlaun Sena has been formed by village women, which is led by the Sena heroine. A woman is also made the treasurer. The rest of the village women are members of that sena. A joint account is operated by the sena in the name of Sena Nayika and Treasurer.
Whenever there is a ritualistic event in any family, Samlaun Sena plants a sapling with its own resources to commemorate that ceremony, and the responsibility of preserving that Samlaun sapling is given to that family. That family gives an award to the sena, through some gifts and some money, which becomes an income for the sena. Similarly, the prize money received from the Samlaun tree plantation work is deposited in the joint account on the occasion of every ritual in the village. This amount strengthens the economic condition of the village and is spent on environment education, health, panchayat goods and self-employment. There is an element of emotional attachment to the plants planted in rituals and thereby increases environmental protection.
Along with this, to conserve our vanishing culture and to create awareness about the environment, the Raath Mahotsav is organised every year since 2016 in the month of January, in the form of the Thadiya Chauphala folk dance competition. Individuals who have done good work in the field of environment are also honoured with the Samalog Samman.On 30 July, 2010, to stop the practice of sacrifice to Maa Bukhaal Kaalika, the Goddess of Raath area, Maneka Gandhi attended a seminar at the Government Inter College, Chaurikhal. For the peace of the souls of those innocent animals, an appeal was made to the then District Magistrate, Dilip Jawalkar, to help stop this practice. On this occasion an oak sapling was planted by Maneka Gandhi and the responsibility of preserving this sapling was given to the Principal of the school.Being a student of that school, the writer came to see the plants grow, and nurtured almost daily, and become trees. Later a thought came, the way we celebrate our children’s birthdays, why not celebrate the birthdays of trees too? In this context, the tree birth anniversary was celebrated with great pomp on 30 July, 2020, on the tenth anniversary of a particular tree. Now, every year, on 30 July, Tree Conservation Day is celebrated as a resolution to undertake plantation work. We have proposed to the government to declare 30 July as Tree Conservation Day.Samlaun has today become a mass movement. In this, grassroots task and awareness activities are done through block, district and state coordinators. Today, the total estimated number of saplings planted on the occasion of every ritual has exceeded one lakh.
(The Author is an educationist and is the founder of Samlaon Movement for Environment Protection and Promotion, presently in Thalisain block of Garhwal District)
