Purulia, Sept 01: In the remote Sindri village of West Bengal’s Purulia district, one man’s daily ritual is quietly transforming the landscape. Dukhu Majhi, a septuagenarian resident of this rural area, starts his day by filling two tin containers with water and gathering saplings.
He then embarks on his bicycle, pedaling to locations he deems in need of shade and greenery, whether it’s a schoolyard or the premises of a temple. His mission is simple yet profound: to plant saplings, particularly fruit-bearing or shade-providing trees like the banyan, where they are most needed.
Majhi’s inspiration comes from his father, who instilled in him a love for planting trees. “I have seen my father planting saplings and been following his footsteps since I was a child,” Majhi reflects. “The saplings, when they finally grow into large trees, would provide us with shade and oxygen.”
Living in a humble thatched hut with his wife, two sons, and grandchildren, Majhi does odd jobs to make ends meet, often working as a daily wage laborer. Yet, he manages to plant a sapling every day. “If all of us work like this, the world would be a better place,” he says optimistically. “There would be a lot more shade and oxygen, and we can live a healthy life.”
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Majhi goes to great lengths to protect the saplings he plants, often erecting small bamboo fences around them. However, these fences face the risk of being used as fuel by impoverished villagers. In response, Majhi devised a creative solution. “I started putting up the fence using burnt wooden logs or clothes discarded at crematoriums,” he explains. “Out of superstition, the villagers never touched them. The saplings remained protected.”
Over the years, Majhi has planted thousands of trees in Purulia, a district in western Bengal that borders Jharkhand and is part of the Chota Nagpur plateau. The region’s undulating, barren terrain with a porous soil layer struggles to retain water, resulting in parched landscapes. Majhi’s dedication to greening this arid land has not gone unnoticed.
Filmmaker Somnath Mondal came across Majhi in 2018 while visiting Purulia. He was struck by the sight of a sapling protected by half-burnt wood and torn cloth along the road. Locals informed Mondal that it was Majhi’s work, and the elderly man was well-known throughout the Baghmundi block of Purulia for his innovative methods of safeguarding saplings.
Mondal, an alumnus of Pune’s Film and Television Institute of India, decided to document Majhi’s inspiring story. His documentary, titled ‘Rukhu Matir Dukhu Majhi’ or ‘Dukhu Majhi: Son of the Barren Land,’ won the National Film Award for Best Biographical Documentary this year. Majhi’s work received recognition from forest officials and local authorities, who even gifted him a bicycle in acknowledgment of his efforts.
Despite these accolades, Majhi remains acutely aware of the challenges facing his mission. He aptly describes the fate of trees as being in the hands of bureaucrats, suggesting that trees are often felled during various development projects undertaken by district administrations.
Dukhu Majhi’s dedication to planting trees serves as an inspirational testament to the impact one individual can have on their environment, regardless of age or resources. In the heart of rural Bengal, his work is not just about greening the landscape but nurturing a more sustainable future for generations to come.
