Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 16: To spread awareness on protection and preservation of age old historic sacred or keystone trees around humans, 657th heritage Tree Talk was today kick-started from the campus of Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine.
More than 40 students from Cluster university Department of social sciences MA integrated in History and 15 Forest protection officials participated in the outdoor tree knowledge sharing interactive session.
At the outset Dr S Natash visiting Botanist along with Director IIIM Dr Ram Vishwakarma planted sacred Shami tree sapling and shared that tree Botanically identified as Prosopis cineraria is National tree of United Arab Emirates ,state tree of Telangana ,Rajasthan ,tree mentioned in Ramayana, Ram worshipped Shami while on way to Sri Lanka ,mentioned in Mahabharata , Pandavas hid arms on this tree during 13th year of exile ,pods consumed as vegetable under the name Sangri ,to protect Shami called Khejdi in Rajasthani Amrito Devi and other 362 persons sacrificed their lives while protesting felling of Shami trees at village Khejarli near Jodhpur during 1730 ,sowed seeds of Chipko movement of Himalayas much later during 1970's.
While taking a round of herbal garden ,Tree Talk crusader O P Sharma Vidyarthi elaborated old heritage trees of J&K focusing on largest Chinar of village Chhatrgaam Budgam ,largest Sheesham at Ramban ,Largest Toon tree at village Raang ,largest Sita Ashok Tree at Gyankund Chadai Tikri ,largest Bargad at Chuhadi ,Largest Moru oak in Doda and largest Jiyopota tree in GGM science college Jammu. Nyctanthes arbor tristis tree locally growing at Katra ,Samba ,Ramnagar is tree supposed to be originated during Sagar manthan ,taken to heavens ,brought down to Earth by Krishna at Dawarka , treelet flowering at evening ,flowers fall of during early morning hours ,called Shiuli in Assamese & Bangla ,quite fragrant ornamental native tree ,leaf flower used in herbal tea ,rice making and other cuisines with nutritional health benefits ,Parijat is used in the cure of arthritis , Sciatica . |
