By News18.com
Amid the struggle to strike a balance between urbanisation and saving the environment as forests are quickly depleting leading to global warming, Moirangthem Loiya from Manipur, India turned a barren land into a 300-acre lush green forest all by himself.
Moirangthem, 45, replanted a 300-acre Punshilok forest in Langol hill-range for 17 years.
“Today, the forest area covers 300 acres. 250 species of plants and 25 species of bamboo grow here and it’s home to a variety of birds, snakes and wild animals,” Moirangthem was quoted by ANI.
Moirangthem Loiya
In 2000, after finishing his college, Moirangthem returned and visited the Koubru peak, which once used to be a lush green area.
He was devastated looking at the condition of the forest where he was frequent during his childhood, as reported by Times of India.
Determined to restore greenery in the area, Moirangthem started looking for a land to plant trees.
In 2002, with the help of locals, Moirangthem reached Maru Langol hill range, which didn’t even have a single tree.
It was his determination and self-motivation with which he was able to bring back life to nature.
According to reports, Moirangthem left his job as a medical representative and started living in Punshilok in a small hut built by himself where he stayed for six years and planted bamboo, oak, ficus, magnoliam teak and jackruit trees among others.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Manipur, Kereilhouvi Angami lauded Moirangthem’s efforts.
He said, “We appreciate his efforts. We welcome all those who protect the environment and are engaged in reforestation. We would encourage other people to also take part in protection, revival and re-forestation of forests.”
Deforestation is one of the activities that humans have long been doing but they hardly find time to plant a sapling. The rate at which the planet is losing its biodiversity is comparable only to the mass extinctions without the shadow of a doubt.
Trees eliminate atmospheric carbon and output oxygen during the process of photosynthesis. It is calculated that a 1 billion hectare increase in forests could limit global warming to an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius by the year 2050.
The new study reveals that reforesting an area about the size of the United States could scrub nearly around 100 years’ worth of carbon emissions.
As per their data, Earth can support nearly 4.4 billion hectares of the forest without removing farmland or cities to accommodate them, while only about 2.8 billion hectares exist now.
This means that there are more than 1.6 billion hectares available for forest restoration.
Manipur is a state in northeastern India with the city of Imphal as its capital.
It is bounded by Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south, and Assam to the west. Myanmar and Chin State lies to its east.
During the days of the British Indian Empire, the Kingdom of Manipur was one of the princely states and between 1917 and 1939, some people of Manipur pressed the princely rulers for democracy.
By the late 1930s, the princely state of Manipur negotiated with the British administration its preference to continue to be part of the Indian Empire, rather than part of Burma, which was being separated from India.
These negotiations were cut short with the outbreak of World War II in 1939. On 11 August 1947, Maharaja Budhachandra signee an Instrument of Accession, joining India.
Later, on 21 September 1949, he signed a Merger Agreement, merging the kingdom into India, which led to its becoming a Part C State.
This merger was later disputed by groups in Manipur, as having been completed without consensus and under duress.
The dispute and differing visions for the future has resulted in a 50-year insurgency in the state for independence from India, as well as in repeated episodes of violence among ethnic groups in the state.
From 2009 through 2018, the conflict was responsible for the violent deaths of over 1000 people.