Octogenarian Chauhan works in his forest

By Our Correspondent,Urlabari, June 6: Octogenarian Nil Bahadur Chauhan of Tupiyakhadi, Sunawarshi-6, enjoys spending his time from early in the morning to evening in his forest every day.

National, partnership and community forests lie about 17 km north of his home. Neither the body supported him nor the time to get there. So he grew a forest on his private land. 

He continuously planted trees on his private land from 1993 to 1995. Initially, he grew forest in his one and a half bigha of his land. Of late, he has expanded his forest to five bighas of land.  Chauhan has planted plants such as Tick, Malaysian Sal, Burflower-tree, Karma and Asana.

Chauhan had migrated to Tarai from Bhojpur's Kulung to live a comfortable life.  But he did not find satisfaction in the Tarai either. At that time, it was customary to go to Munglan (India) to earn money.

He also entered India in the year 1963 without any plan. He returned to Tupiyakhadi in 1975 and bought two and a half bighas of land with the money he earned by rearing cattle in Assam, India.  

He said, "Since 1990, I have been living permanently in Govindapur Panchayat (currently Sunawarshi Municipality-6).” He now has 10 bighas of land. He has planted trees in more than half of that land.

The southern part of Morang is considered to be the best place for rice cultivation. Even at that time, many people in the village laughed at him when he planted Sal trees on the land where  about 3,000 kg of paddy could be grown in a bigha of land.

He added, “Some said 'Chauhan Budho' went mad. However, in the future, these trees would bear the value of rice, so I persisted in planting trees and engaged in weeding and caring for the plants.”

Even now, his daily life is spent in a private forest.

Chauhan, who is now 81, takes a sigh of satisfaction looking at the huge Sal trees that have grown up on his land.

The then district forest office Morang and the Ministry of Forest also honoured him with the award for best private forest along with Rs. 15,000 and Rs 51,000 in cash respectively.

These prizes changed his identity. Locals nicknamed him as ‘Sal Grandfather’.  He said, "Now, everyone knows me as Sal Grandfather, not as Nil Bahadur.” 

Two of Sal Grandfather's four sons help him in the protection of the forest. He said that there are currently 140 big Sal trees and he has planted 100 more trees three years ago. 

Sal Grandfather has spent a total of Rs. 600,000 in planting trees. But he has sold wood worth more than that. He said, “I sold a lot of trees including Sal and Tick. I don’t keep count but the investment has already been recovered.”