Have you planted a tree?

Have you planted a tree ?

Come July and everybody gets a tree planting paroxysm in Orissa! The papers carry full page ads announcing the launch of the Van Mahotsav week from 5th July. The most despicable part is that this plantation “natak” is limited to the capital city only and the district headquarter towns! Nothing happens in the 55,000 villages of the state!

From tomorrow onwards you will find the chief minister and his dhoti clad ministers religiously going around the capital planting trees. The entire babudom gets infected by the planting fever and an official blitzkrieg is launched! No empty public space is spared anywhere .

Much of the plantation is ill advised, since nobody bothers to leave space for the large species to grow up properly. The measly gap of 5-7 feet is ridiculous! If even 10 % would have survived, the capital would have turned into a tropical forest with Tarzan and his apes reigning supreme!

Ofcourse no VIP plants trees without TV cameras and photographers in dutiful attendance! And have you ever seen a tree planting ceremony without the mandatory banner?

Methinks, if you want to do a good deed just go ahead and do it! No need to holler that you have done your bit for the environment!

And tree planting occasions are now turning into celebrity events with liberal doses of glamour! Nowadays, even the desi celebrities ……..the album artistes and Oriya film heroines are being pulled in.

Everybody has a lovely time! Crowds gawk at the giggling cuties as they flash their instant sunny smiles at adulatory fans while they gingerly sprinkle a few drops of water on a sapling, careful not to soil their dainty hands. The bald headed ministers are also happy to grace the gathering. Who would miss this golden chance to leer at the chirpy 20 somethings young enough to be their grand-daughters ? Then everybody poses for the photographs under the prominent banner with the ministers pulling and holding the reluctant lassies closer! Thereafter, the crowd disappears forgetting the drooping seedlings which dry up and die due to sheer lack of care!

This year, about Rs. 200 lakhs is supposed to be spent by the BMC in greening. With this amount one can easily create a mini Simlipal! Every councillor is hestitant to find out about the fate of the thousands of seedlings planted earlier, since he fears of being dubbed anti-environment! The bloody exercise is supposed to be such a noble and holy thing!

The tree planting campaign has come as a boon for the govt. bandits . ………. a ridiculously simple way to loot the public funds. 90% of seedlings are dead within a few months either due to lack of water or cattle grazing. Out of the rest hardly 2- 3 % survive the next year!

The BMC headed by that bear faced moronic lawyer who never had a practice, does not hesitate to cut off trees to put up hoardings all around the city. Plant with one hand and destroy the old trees with the other!

You should also hear the inspiringly sweet spiels delivered by the bloody forest wallas who espouse the golden virtues of trees and how without forests we would all die! At the back of his mind, the rat would be calculating his share from the last consignment of illicit logs which would have been removed by the timber mafia from his beat!

For that matter, have you guys ever heard of an honest forest officer? The entire deptt. is now enjoying its golden age! Since the infantile Queen is at the head, it is easy to fool him with their fairy tales of how they have managed to stop the timber loot, rampant wildlife poaching, etc. Pure BS, I must say! The forest guys are also mighty thrilled! Nowadays, the entire loot goes home as they do not have to part with a penny to any Minister! A bird told me that the take in the mining belt is astronomical! With the booming price of iron ore, illegal mines operators are ready to pay obscene amounts. I heard about a range officer of Bonai division who makes half a crore a year by just closing his eyes to the mining !

At the same time, the Queen grandly announces at every public meet that he loves forests and is committed to their protection while he smilingly signs away prime areas for mining! The bloody fraud needs a whip on his soft backside!

Why do we enact this bloody tree planting rigmarole every year, when we are fast losing thick forests every day? Any answer please?