Birthday celebrations of Neem tree take place at Adarsh market in Bhopal

Birthday Cake cut for the Neem Tree

Tuesday, 23rd June 2020

India is a land of quirky traditions and rituals that have their roots in spirituality and culture. But this time the roots of this tradition are in the environmental consciousness of the locals. In the Bhopal city of Madhya Pradesh, shop keepers of Adarsh Market (Piplani) are following a ritual that dates back to 26 years. It consists of celebrating a Neem tree’s birthday and has been started as a ritual of environment conservation. Each year a huge crowd of school children and local officials gather at the place to take part in the celebrations. This time, however, the observation of the ritual was muted because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social distancing regulations.

In a statement made to PTI, Sanjay Shukla (MP Industry Principal Secretary) said:"I have been taking part in this event continuously for the past 16 years as I strongly believe in conserving our environment for future generations,"

Mr. Shukla is said to have cut a birthday cake in honor of the Neem Tree. The other two important officials who attended the function apart from Shukla were Upendra Jain (Bhopal Range Inspector General of Police) and VS Choudhary Kolsani (Bhopal Civic Chief)

 Rambabu Sharma of the Adarsh Market was the key person who had taken the initiative for this ritual. His aim, as he said, was to repay Mother Nature and for doing so, a Neem tree was chosen as the symbol as trees have sustained mankind down the ages with their wood.

He said: "Normally, a person uses wood all his life, from birth to building a house to deploying it for late rites. However, he does not give anything in return. With this thought in mind, I floated the idea of planting a neem tree 26 years ago on June 21. And since then we have been celebrating its birthday,"

Rambabu Sharma claimed that the public sector major liked the idea forwarded by him and in response converted a huge piece of land (10 acres) in vicinity to the market to a wilderness full of trees.

Kolsani; the Civic Chief of Bhopal said that in this Monsoon season they are planning to plant saplings all around the city.

Source: NDTV