Chongtham Samarendra, Manipur and Forestry

Akham Bonbirdhwaja Singh *

Trees at Imphal Valley in June 2010 :: Pix - Jinendra Maibam

This article has nothing to do with my profession or job and it is purely borne out of my extra official relation with a friend, an old man, a brother and a well wisher, A simple man, a hard working one, who always have some advice or suggestion for any situation and eventuality. I just remembered him, thought I must recollect my interactions with him.

I have been writing a few articles for dailies and journals, occasionally. In the All India Radio, I have given a number of talks, could be over fifty or sixty odd talks since 1978. What I have been talking and writing was mostly on technical subjects, to make the scientific matters of forestry and environment easily understandable to the common people.

Whenever, I am bored or have some stress, which one can get easily nowadays, I used to think of an issue which I feel that could be of some use to somebody by going through and try to write an article on that. Though I am a trained forester, I used to pick up a variety of social issue for my talks and articles, sometimes historical aspects of my profession, which is quite a neglected aspect.

Due to my interests on such issues, I used to discuss a wide range of such issues with Shri Chongtham Samarendra Singh, who in my opinion, is a knowledgeable person regarding history and people of Manipur. As he was a friend of my ex boss, he used to come to our office frequently, and whenever I get a chance, I used to bring up a topic, may be literature, history, social issues and of course environmental issues. We used to discuss the anniversary plantation groves of Israel extensively.

A few years back, he was planting a few seedlings; he loved those seedlings very much. I told him to give a name to those seedlings so that he can personify his love and see the effect. He liked the idea of naming trees like we name our pets, and he promised that he would name them but he would ask his grandchildren for that noble act.

Still better idea, to inculcate the love in children is a good idea. He also used to tell about his experience as SDO at Mao, Ukhrul etc. You might have gone through a few of his articles, they were excellent, his command over Manipuri Language was amazing though he was equally good in English and literature.

Long after retirement and just before his sudden and unfortunate demise, he was doing a work on a Gazetteer of Manipur Series, and I used to visit his makeshift office inside the Kangla and discuss a number of issues, a few Puyas (Uyanlon, Urol, Leirol, Heejing Heerao etc. His article on Heeyang Heerel was superb) which are relevant to forestry.

These Puyas are connected with art of felling trees, description of trees and flowers and procedure for boat making, mostly dug out boats, and these puyas had ample elements of technical forestry which had not been explored. We used to admire these books.

We also used to discuss local names of Plants and Trees and the necessity of scientific management of forests everywhere as environmental issues are global and we cannot destroy neighbours forests for my needs as I also would face the consequences along with him. My neighbour also cannot do whatever he likes with his forests as his actions shall expose me to the hazards of environmental degradation ( In Sweden, trees in the riparian zone, i.e. 20m from the stream cannot be felled even in private lands).

Shri Chongtham Samarendra Singh used to tell everybody to write something, for the benefit of the people of Manipur. He told my ex boss that the society has given us so much and we had to return something to the society, best way is to write about our experience. We should write the topic at which we are good, of course for information of the people. I liked his attitude very much. Though all of us are not equally good in writing as he was, we all can try. We can put something which will be good for the people frankly.

Nowadays, I have been seeing a lot of articles on forestry and environment and it is heartening to know that we have many contributors in this field. Not only, environmental issues, there are a number writers who are contributing on myriads of issues. But I just have a thought, are these articles contribute to building a good society? Honestly, am I contributing what is needed of me or expected of me or what I am capable of?

Tamo Samarendra used to tell me a lot about the relation the Kings had with the subjects in the hills, the sovereignty over land and people, its administrative aspects on many disciplines etc. Most of the facts are available scattered in the Cheitharol Kumbaba, Puyas, Darbar Resolutions, Administration Reports, Parwanas etc. A few have been accounted in the writings of the Europeans.

Still, there are a lot of misgivings, perhaps due to lack of study of facts or carried away by biases. A few customary laws have been construc-ted, which personally, I cannot say are free of disputabilities but surely will gain acceptability in course of time. There are not too many records, but it is wonder why the things cannot be made straight.

Talking of records, Tamo tried to help me to find a few Administration Reports, reports of four years, which are still missing in my collection. He tried his best but could not find them for me. There are also a number of darbar resolutions missing, but not to be found anywhere. I have a list of all the resolutions with English translations, got from the chamber of Ld. Late RK Sanajaoba Singh, Senior Advocate and I wanted to verify with originals, but I could not find many.

Lack of these documents make government weak and create a room for manipulations. These have to be arranged again, if necessary get copies from London even. I have tried National Library and National Archives, but not of much use. I have learnt that they are available in London. These documents are important. Because these are the foundations of governance, means of bargaining and tools to check false claims.

Our record keeping also needs to be digitized, best if both records and index can be digitized, or at least index can be digitized, which is not too difficult. Safety of the records is very important and who should take care of them is also important. I mean the records of the days of the kings. Records could be lost due to carelessness, improper handling, stealing etc., depends on the person handling it. Somebody may destroy some records, deliberately.

There could be cases where the person handling it may not even know the existence of a record. Digitising and placing them in public domain would increase the authenticity. This also would save a lot of time for officers and staff of many departments, who had to waste a lot of time searching for a needle in the haystack and return disappointed. This also can ensure that the decisions that are taken now by decision makers do not run contra to the earlier resolutions and decisions which carry force of law.

Three years back, Tamo Samarendra arranged a get together during Rathyatra. Most of the invitees were of his generation, some younger, but perhaps I was the youngest (he was at least twenty years older to me). We belonged to different generations. But somehow, our frequencies matched. We could talk for hours together and share our ideas.

He was a patriot in his own style. He was right that we all can contribute something for our own people, from our experience and from our quests for facts and truth. He liked trees very much, planted a lot also. He was particularly fond of teak.

As his friend (my ex boss) and I was there, he liked my department also. I really missed a friend, a brother and may I say a forester or a friend of foresters ?