"Grow Green, Live Clean" campaign held
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, May 23 2025: The North East Cane and Bamboo Development Council (NECBDC) in collaboration with Apunba Imagi Machasing (AIMS) have launched a strong community movement called the "Grow Green, Live Clean-Say No to Poppy, Yes to Bamboo" .

As part of the campaign which commenced on May 20, thousands of bamboo saplings were handed over to farmers and youth groups at Shirui village, Ukhrul District as a viable substitute for poppy cultivation.

"Bamboo is not just a means to ecological regeneration, it is ingrained in the very civilisational awareness of Manipur.

This is the first and only site on earth where Walon Puya, an old manuscript of the Meitei civilization, was written on bamboo, converting a plant into an instrument of philosophical and historical knowledge.

That same bamboo is now a metaphor for livelihood, climate resilience, and self-pride", said AIMS in a release.

AIMS also highlighted that the campaign reiterates the battle against ecological degradation and narcotics does not rest in repression but in people's, Culturebased regeneration.

Expressing anguish over the Gwaltabi incident of May 20, AIMS said, "Manipur is not a brand label to be taped over.

It is a living culture.

We are the home of the Shirui Lily that blooms nowhere else, of the Sangai deer dancing on water that only place to survive the animal in the world, of the Loktak Lake that world's only floating lake, of Ima Keithel where trade breathes through women, of the only Nupi Lan where mothers turned warriors, and of the Walon Puya where only bamboo became scripture since ancient time".

AIMS also alleged that the erasure of the name "Manipur" is not symbolic, it is an institutional evidence that the Indian state is not willing to safeguard, respect, or even acknowledge the Manipuris as equal citizens.

"We at AIMS, with NECBDC, seize this moment to condemn the erasure of identity with the same vigour with which we amplify the use of bamboo as an instrument of survival and rebirth.

We do not plant bamboo just to green our hills, we plant bamboo because it reminds us who we are - a people whose knowledge, heritage, and struggle are anchored in resilience", it concluded.

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