Van Mahotsav, Festival of Life, Peace and Progress

By – Dr. N. Munal Meitei
Van Mahotsav, the great festival of forest, celebrated from July 1 to 7 has the ambitions to save the country and the mother Earth. In this festival, 1.46 billion citizens are purposed to plant a sapling to conserve the forests and greening the country. This beautiful festival surely saves our pristine environment to which we all owe and our cultural and social tradition of trees worshiping. In recent years, rapid urbanization has led to widespread cutting of trees to accommodate expanding infrastructure and housing needs. This relentless deforestation has resulted in significant environmental degradation, affecting air quality, climate stability and the biodiversity.
The first national level tree plantation was organized on 20thJuly 1947, by Shri M.S. Randhawa, a Civil Servant, inaugurated by Shri Khurshid Ahmad Khan, Commissioner of Delhi followed by another ceremony held at Purana Qila led by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. The tradition was continued by Shri K. M. Munshi, the then Minister of Food and Agriculture and he officially turned it into a national event giving it’s a new name, Van Mahotsav in 1950.
Van Mahotsav, deeply etched in Indian culture plays a crucial role in reminding us of our responsibility to safeguard and nurture the nation. It is a national event with commitment to protect the natural environment and ensure a healthy, green and sustainable future for the generations to come. This festival of trees, emerges as a beacon of hope and action for national security and benevolent future.
Apart from Van Mahotsav, the Ministry of Culture had also taken up the initiative to celebrate Sankalp Parva from June 28 to July 12, 2020, where all its Subordinate Offices, Academies, Attached Institutions, Affiliated Institutions were expected to plant trees in their campus or the surrounding areas. Since trees are such a vital part in the ecosystem, it is the duty of each and every citizen to preserve trees and root for a healthy, pollution-free environment.
According to The Global Forest Watch, India had to let go of around 38,500 hectares of tropical forest which is an almost 14% tree cover decreasing 0.67% of our tree cover. Over the last decade, deforestation has caused a total of 16% loss in country’s forest area.
It is evident that forests are under constant threat due to obnoxious human activities. Van Mahotsav is an exemplary move to prevent the country’s vegetation from fading away.
The theme, ‘Ek Paudha Maa Ke Naam 2.0’ is like to plant a tree in the name of our own beloved mother, alive or death and serve as if she is, and in inverse, as the mother looks after her children, we are also to look after these seedlings to survive. It is also our traditional festival that reflects our culture and heritage to honour and love for the mother nature. The slogan for this year is “Plant a Tree, Secure Our Future”.
Trees are magicians with carbon, pulling it out of the air at remarkable rates to store it in their bodies including the living wood, roots, leaves, deadwood, surrounding soils and its associated vegetation. Forests ecosystems are essentially storage machines for maintaining the equilibrium of climate, biodiversity, soil and living beings on the planet. They are so good at removing this greenhouse gas that “planting trees” is often synonymous with doing environmental safeguard. Trees are nature-based; one of the most powerful weapons to solve all environmental crisis.
Indigenous species have had millions of years to adapt to their local environment to give the best co-existence. Again, if we do not get the support from local communities, our planted trees may not survive. Hence, we should think about, all repercussions before our planting trees.
Tree planting can capture carbon regardless of species or who plant it, it is hardly a silver bullet for the climate crisis – experts estimate that even if we maximized our available lands with trees, this alone would not be enough to counteract anthropogenic carbon emissions. Current afforestation rate is not even 1% of total felled down.
Van Mahotsav is more than just a festival; it is a revolutionary movement toward a green and sustainable future. While greenery is around, it improves air quality, reduce temperature, support wildlife, enhanced beautification and promote health and well-being.
No life is possible on the earth without plants. Thus, Van Mahotsav is the festival of life, peace, hope and development. It creates the enthusiasm among masses on forest conservation and planting trees. Seeing the present day numerous environmental catastrophes, preservation of forest has become an integral part of life.
The planting of trees provides alternative fuel, increase food resources, creates shelter for biodiversity and wind-belts around the fields to increase productivity, decorative landscapes and conserves soil fertility etc. Trees provide fodder leaves and shades to increase the atheistic value of the landscape and also provide small poles and timber for housing and agricultural implements.
Van Mahotsav will help in increasing forest cover and promote fruit and timber from non-forests. Open fields, river banks and barren lands can be slowly converted into integrated tree land or semi forests or orchards. Finally, through Van Mahotsav, we can bring back our lost forests.
Humans with their greedy have cut down globally the forest cover with the size of 40 football grounds per second numbering about 15 billion trees annually. This declining number has brought a major challenge in climate. So, there is a dire necessity of Van Mahotsav festival all over the world to restore the forest cover on non-forest areas.
India ranked 10th in the world, with 24.4% of land area under forest, even though we have only 2.4 % of the world surface. Van Mahotsav carries immense significance not just for a national cause but also for a global cause. Green and healthy earth is for all the inhabitants of this planet. Notably, it’s commitment to environmental conservation.
Manipur has become a vulnerable state to floods, droughts, heat waves, cyclones and many other natural disasters. This trend is increasing with each day. With continuous human intervention against nature, these disasters can no longer be considered ‘Natural’. The recent flash floods in Imphal area are a vivid warning signal.
Now it is our turn to reverse back the damage that we have caused and to restore the ecological balance, the best way is planting trees and saving the existing forests. The Civil Societies, NGOs and Meira Paibis are now need to involve in the mass tree plantation movements. We may also organize house to house tree plantation campaign. It’s suggested for the tree census above 1 ft girth at breast height at least for five valley districts may be started and if so, that could be a great conservation effort.
Thus, in this Van Mahotsav -2025, let’s plant at least one tree by all the family members for sake of a green India and Manipur.
(The author is Environmentalist, presently working as DFO/Chandel, [email protected])