It all began on September 9. It was around 9 am. The Veterinary College Playground at Khanapara was decked up with seedlings arranged in a spiral pattern making the playground disappear in the design. The total length of the spiral was 22 km. Officials of the Environment and Forest Department were on their toes, and so was the Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary. Nobody was willing to take a chance. There was a record to be made, and that, too, the first among many. Present on the occasion were Guinness officials led by its referee Prabin Patel.
Finally, the first of the records “longest line of potted seedlings arranged in spiral pattern” spread over 22 km with 3.5 lakh saplings in Archimedean Spiral was certified.
Prior to the record, the Minister, while talking to Asom Barta spoke of the increasing forest cover of Assam at 36% compared to the national average of 23%. He said that in the next few years, the Government was keen to take it up by a couple of percentage points to 38%. “We have organised this programme as part of the Assam Brikshya Andolan to create awareness around the tree economy. The target of one crore commercial tree plantation is just the beginning. Next year, we will plant 3 cr saplings. These saplings will come from the nurseries of our department supported by the CAMPA Fund,” the Minister claimed.
Ajanta Neog, the State Finance Minister, spoke of the reduction in global warming through the ABA initiative and increase in the society’s collective responsibility towards afforestation, during her speech.
On September 10, another record of “Distribution of Highest Saplings” was created. The number was 3, 20,432 which was way over the previous number of 78,000. The programme was attended by Assam Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma.
“The Government has done its bit. The responsibility is now on us,” was how an environment enthusiast Sisir Kalita put it summing up the atmosphere on the day.
On September 11, an online classroom on YouTube on the theme “Assam’s Green Future: Environmental Sustainability & Amrit Brikshya Andolan” was organised. Yet another record was certified by Guinness authority stating that over 70,000 people had logged in simultaneously to be part of the live classroom. Over 8.5 lakh individuals have viewed the programme on YouTube as of 12 noon of September 21 when this report was filed. The classroom was inaugurated by Assam’s Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Head of Forest Force M K Yadava.
The record spree continued at a different venue at Bhairabkunda-Shikaridanga in Udalguri on September 14 when within a span of 24 hours, 9,000 individuals planted 8.81 lakh saplings spread over 100 hectares of land. The Assam Chief Minister spoke of a continued enthusiasm to keep the momentum going in his address. He also spoke of the Green Bodoland Mission in the programme.
Research scholar Babul Bodo was among the participants on the day. “We certainly take pride in this initiative. We will inspect these saplings from time-to-time even though a self help group Feranga has taken the responsibility of overseeing these saplings. We were a group of 137 individuals who were associated with the initiative since inception,” he told this reporter over phone.
More than 3.31 lakh saplings, including Mahogany and Agarwood were planted in an hour by a group in Hapjan Hills of Margherita on September 15 in yet another shot at a Guinness record.
A record of “Largest Potted Sapling Mosaic Map” was achieved at Ulup Industrial Farms in Enthem Gaon Panchayat in Margherita on September 16. Over 6.32 lakh saplings were planted over 0.85 hectare of land on which the mosaic map of Assam and a one horned rhino were depicted. The achievement superseded a previous record set in Turkey.
Sukla Gogoi from a local youth organisation told this newsletter that over 5,000 people had assembled on the day to witness history being made.
