KHARANG, June 5: Over 500 cherry trees were planted at Kharang village in East Khasi Hills as part of an ongoing project to beautify the village and as part of World Environment Week celebration 2022. The plantation project was taken up by Operation Clean-Up (OCU) which also included Team Jiva among other participants from the village which included the Village Development Committee chaired by Banjop Mukhim and children from all schools in the scenic village and friends.
Located 35 kilometre east of Shillong on the way to Nongjrong village under Mawkynrew C&RD Block, Kharang’s idyllic hills are a perfect set up for the plantation with the enthusiastic children all vowing to be the next-gen environment warriors.
Surrounded on both sides by tributaries of the Umngot river, Kharang is relatively green but also has large tracts of agricultural land where villagers adopt a multi-cropping pattern.
Participating at the plantation drive, Alisha Mukhim, who is part of the workforce for geo-tagging the MGNREGA works and was present for the plantation drive, said, “The villagers consider their waters sacred and the village is partly responsible for the cleanliness of the waters of the Umngot River flowing through scenic Dawki,” adding that if Mawphlang is known for its sacred groves, people of Kharang revere their rivers and are trying their best to take care of them and also grooming the next generation environment warriors so they learn to take care of these waters.
At a small function organised by the Dorbar Shnong, OCU captain Patricia Mukhim lauded the efforts of the Village Development Committee and encouraged the children and the villagers to continue with their good work preserving to conserve the environment.
She also spoke on the ill effects of plastic bags and how they remain in the soil for hundreds of years, thereby drying up the soil and making it unfit for farming.
OCU member Jiwat Vaswani, who also spoke on the occasion, announced special prizes for the children who took active participation in the plantation drive. “Anyone who can write a report on what they did for the environment and send it to us will get either a TV or a bicycle as a prize,” Vaswani said.
Village Sordar Langbor Nongpluh informed the gathering that the village has a lot of plans to ensure that their reserve forest does not get depleted by planting more trees in the days to come.
In his brief speech, Banjop Mukhim said that the village has since time immemorial taken up tree plantation. The practice dates back to the time when governments and government agencies had not even thought about afforestation.
“People in the area plant trees around the periphery of their big gardens (sometimes the entire hillock) to prevent livestock from raiding their garden produce,” Banjop said, adding that the entire village is like a virtual forest because of this practice.
He also informed that the way the people of the village take care of the tributaries of Umngot river – Umtangphar and Umlew – which flow for more than five kilometres through the village and nearby villages downstream, is also the reason for the river getting to Dawki in its cleanest form. Children, their parents and school teachers were seen actively participating in the tree plantation drive.
