On a green mission
WEST BENGAL: Mrittyur age kichu gach rekhe jao dhoritri mayer buke (before you die, leave some trees on Mother Earth). These words touched schoolteacher Shyamal Jana so much in his childhood that they became the ambition of his life. The 38-year-old teacher for junior students in Contai, East Midnapore, has taken the lead in planting trees across the state. Jana’s work started a decade ago – from south Bengal’s seashores to the foothills in north Bengal. So far, he has planted banyan and pipal trees.
Jana’s selection of trees drew on their religious side: considered sacred by Hindus, people don’t collect wood from these trees. On his third marriage anniversary recently, the Jana couple planted 30 saplings of the two trees.
“A chopped tree would make me cry. I saw how birds flew away from my village after trees were destroyed,’’ said Jana. As an anti-pollution agent and home to birds, trees were to be Jana’s bosom friends.
He grew up in a businessman’s family. His parents passed away years ago. His wife Monika took his mission as a cynic’s habit in the initial phase of her married life. “On holidays and during free time, he would head for various places with saplings, leaving me alone at home. Then I decided to join him,” she said.
Jana found similarity between his profession and his mission. “When I teach children in my school, they appear to me as saplings growing up gradually in front of my eyes. I feel a child should grow up with some values in life. Similar feelings bring smile on my face when I see a sapling planted by me grow up and birds settling on its branches. It is such a feeling that you cannot compare it with any amount of wealth in the world,” he said.
Whenever Jana visits Kolkata, he goes to the parks and other places to see how the saplings are growing up and how many of them have fully grown. “I planted trees near Brigade Parade Ground and Eden Gardens, the two landmarks of the state capital. I have set up a goal for planting 500 saplings of baniyan and pipal trees in and around Kolkata,” he says.
During vacations, Jana sets out on his mission to Kalimpong, Dooars in north Bengal, seashores in Digha, Mandarmoni, Shankarpur and districts like North and South Dinajpur, Malda, Purulia, Bankura, East and West Midnapore.