Students embrace their favourite tree crying to save it from felling

Remember the famous Chipko Movement where women of villages held on to their favourite trees to stop them from being cut? It was a repeat scene but this time, the young students of a Birbhum school held on to their favourite Kadam Tree on their school campus to prevent it from being cut. But why did the tree need to be felled? 

Their school, Purbapara Prathamik Vidyalaya has a common boundary with the adjoining BDO office of Guskara’s Aushgram and there is no wall in between the premises. The school that was established in 1969 has around 250 students. To build a wall for the safety of the office a tender was called and the work of building the boundary wall will soon start. But construction of this wall means cutting of the huge Kadam Tree on the school boundary that has been there since decades. It is the very tree under which generations of students have sat and played, watched squirrels and birds’ nests on their branches. There are hardly any more trees on the school campus. No wonder this Kadam Tree had turned into a friend for all students who took rest and played under its shade. 

Everyone is now waiting for some news from the BDO office, hoping the wall can be made without cutting the tree. Hope the love of students for the tree will save it.

Image courtesy Pratidin