which bark of khejadi tree is used for making?
Answers
In 1730 AD, a small village located 26 km south-east of Jodhpur in Rajasthan witnessed probably the first and most fierce environment protection movement in the history of the country. Amrita Devi of Khejarli village and her three young daughters laid down their lives to protect the sacred trees which the ruler of Marwar Maharaja Abhay Singh had ordered to be cut down for building his new palace. This inspired other members of the community and a total of 363 people sacrificed their lives in coming days trying to save the trees by hugging them while the king’s men chopped their bodies with axes. The ‘martyrs’ belonged to Bishnoi community and the trees which they were protecting were ‘Khejri’. In 1970s, this sacrifice became the inspiration behind the Chipko Movement.
However, two centuries on, the story has a twist. In 2015, the Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI) took out a report which stated that the number of Khejri trees per hectare in the 12 dry districts of Rajasthan had dropped to less than 35 per cent. This, the report stated, was happening because of a very high mortality rate owing to factors like decrease in groundwater level, fungal attacks, indiscriminate cutting, etc.