Assam: A ‘library on trees’ to draw school students to world of books

GUWAHATI:  Nisha Goala’s favourite place to read is under the ‘bhomora’ tree (Belleric myrobalan) – she “plucks” out her favourite book and buries herself into it.

The ‘tree library’ is an attempt by the Jorhat chapter of the NGO JCI Femina to make reading interesting for kids. 

The library, set up at the Girls’ High School in Mariani, has comics, novels, autobiographies and other books in Assamese, Hindi and English.

“We took permission from the school, and hired a carpenter and used household waste material, largely containers, to make shelves. The library with 600 books was launched on Sept. 3,” NGO president Dipika Poddar said.

JCI Femina secretary Shivani Agarwal said they spent around Rs 15,000 to set it up.  The school is planning to allot a teacher for the library, Bobina Tanti, the school's headmistress said.

Children are elated with the project.

“I always love to read books on great people. The library has plenty of them,” said Nisha, a class X student of the school, which has 422 students.

However, the idea is inviting concern from environmentalists.

Saying that the concept is good but the trees could have been spared, environmentalist Mridu Paban Phukon, added, “They could have set it up on a bamboo or metal pole. Nails used to fix the bookshelves will have an adverse impact on the trees. They could have used ropes,” Phukon added, pointing out that paints on the trees can harm the ecosystem of ants and insects.