At a time when India is combating one of the worst health crisis over the surging Covid second wave pandemic, a 90 plus year old woman from the remotest Chingjaroi village in North East India state of Manipur set a precedent defying age as she effortlessly cleaned up the unattended waste materials lying in the locality, an act she has been religiously performing.
A mother and grandmother figure to many children and grandchildren of Chingjaroi village, in extreme north of Ukhrul district – a clean locality, an exemplary feat performed by A S Kaditulew could surely be an eye-opener and a lesson for the villagers to streamline their clean, eco-friendly and green village initiatives. She would wake up early in the morning and go brisk walking in and around the village vicinity holding her staff, chatting with passersby with a broad smile which she always wears.
“I am getting old now. It’s time for younger generations to take charge. I wish I could keep going for another round of adventure,” said A S Kaditulew. Her wish list, even when senile, refuses to die down. Perhaps, that for her, is the beauty of life.
Speaking to Ukhrul Times, Aya A Shimray, Kaditulew’s grandson, he said that no one asked her to clean up the litter. She did it all by herself and that she was superbly active even in her personal life, maintaining strict discipline. “My grandmother still does all the cleaning without bothering others and is particularly very mindful of keeping her personal hygiene.” Her personal hygiene is a model for today’s generation to emulate.
At times she would go walking without the aid of staff. A believer of “early to bed and early to rise”, she religiously followed brisk walk in her day to day life which not only keep her strong and fit but also happy, Shimray added.
Themsa Mark, who is a retired government teacher was also an active campaigner of clean village. He was regularly seen moving around the village surroundings collecting the waste with the sole aim to turn the village into clean and safe environment. “Perhaps the sheer joy and satisfaction derived from his little acts keep him going, ” stated a youth.
If such an aged person could still bent down and disposed off the waste at the dustbin in her routine brisk walked all by herself and contribute her share towards creating a clean environment, should youth be still far behind when their one and only mother earth is in need of special care, as alerted umpteen times by many renowned scientists about the fast escalating climate induce global warming seen in the world today.
With Global warming impacting our daily lives and human callousness causing depletion to our natural environments, and sensing the need for urgent mitigation at local level, the Chingjaroi CV Village Authority constituted an Eco-Village Committee way back in 2014.
With no Government fundings, led by the EVC and Somaya A Shimray has since its inception initiated various measures through community participation to make the village a clean, eco-friendly, green village. Various community awareness events, followed by community plantation of ornamental plants and tree saplings have been consistently been conducted through crowd-funding. Partial contributions were also received from the Volunteers For Village Development (VVD), an Ukhrul-based community organisation and Forest Department, Ukhrul.
Even though located in the remotest northern part of the state, Chingjaroi CV is perhaps one of the cleanest villages in the district today. The Evershine Youth Organization (EYO) in partnership with the EVC looks after the cleanliness and beautification of the village Chingjaroi.
Scores of eco hubs have been set up in the village main view points by respective yarnaos (Youths) in addition to children exclusive eco-park.
Chingjaroi is one of the biggest villages among the Tangkhul tribe and can became a “model village” given its plethora of eye catching scenic spots for the adventure lovers including the fame Chingjui peak, Akharo, Japan Kafalokatiu, waterfalls, lovers point and many others while offering them a picture perfect view of the Poumai region, and a glance of neighboring Nagaland’s mount Saramati, among others.
Hospitality and friendly nature of the villagers is another big takeaways.
Unpredictable pattern of weather and rapid rise in humidity level is felt by the district populace. Forest fire is reported in many parts of the district with few exceptions. Large scale felling of trees for domestic purpose is also another worrisome factor for people who couldn’t afford routine refilling of LPG gas in their villages.
Planting of more trees and creating sustainable way of life if practiced by the planet dwellers, the world would have been a much better place.