Indian green warriors carry tree on their shoulders for manual relocation

Patna: Amid ruthless felling of trees to start construction works, a photograph of green warriors carrying a grown-up uprooted tree on their shoulders for manual relocation has won hearts of the environment lovers.

The photograph shows six youths from Jharkhand state carrying a tree tied to a bamboo pole resting on their shoulders to shift it to some safer location. They are relocating the tree to a safer place so that it grows independently and none could harm it.

Strangely, they are not using a heavy mechanism to shift the tree elsewhere; rather they are using the rural mechanism and also their rustic knowledge to save an uprooted tree. It is not clear if the tree got uprooted under the impact of tempest or if the Green warrior dug it out after they noticed it could be cut down for carrying out development works in the areas.

The photograph shared by a Deputy Collector from Jharkhand Sanjay Kumar has gained attention of the netizens and got more than 5,500 likes. “A picture says more than 1000 words,” reads the caption of the post shared by the official. The post has invited many comments from Twitteratis who saluted the heroic endeavours of the village youths.

“They are true environment warriors & deserve a big Salute as they actually love our children,” wrote Sukumar Das. Another person commented, “True heroes of India, some are creating, some are destroying pristine forests #SaveLakshadweep #savebuxwahaforest, diamonds can be made artificially, better quality, don’t destroy forests for that.”

Shanta wrote: “More than the joy I felt to see the effort to save this tree, I was more than happy to see that at least these young men have understood the importance of plantation. And, they will undoubtedly pass on its importance to the next generation. Awakening is visible.” Yet another twitteri commented, “Salute to these soldiers…No inventions can give Oxygen except trees.”

According to an official report, the total recorded forest area of Jharkhand state is 23,553km which is 29.61% of the geographical area of the state. Of the total recorded forest area, Reserved Forests constitute 18.58%, Protected Forests 81.28%, and Unclassed Forests 0.14%. The total forest and tree cover put together, constitutes about 33.21% of the geographical area of the state, as per India State of Forest Report, 2017 published by Forest Survey of India.

Of late, however, the forest area has started depleting due to indiscriminate felling of trees by villagers for farming works, to make money by selling woods and growing pressures on forest areas due population growth. The depleting forest areas have also resulted in human-animal conflicts.

According to reports, the raging conflict between humans and animals in Jharkhand have killed 1,405 people and around “80 elephants” since the state was created in 2000.