Opinion: What Transplanting A Tree Amid Gunfight Tells About Manipur

June 11, 2023 will be remembered as the most extraordinary day for village Mud, which lies in the foothills between Manipur's Kangpokpi, Ukhrul and Imphal East districts. It will remain a remarkable day in the memory of a small team comprising a filmmaker, a producer, farmers, an army Captain and some soldiers, who successfully transplanted a 5.5-feet-tall, fruit-bearing hog plum tree, locally known as "heining", amid the intermittent ethnic clashes in Manipur since May 3.

Mud is a 1.25 hectare-large concept village near Manipur's "living museum" at Sekta, 23 km from state capital Imphal. Tree and bamboo plantations are prioritised activities here since 2020. The place serves as a landscaping exercise to run an environmentally friendly village and also serves as a community interactive centre, a family outdoor activity spot, a space for specialised residential training programmes and a meditation centre. All these are essentially for self-exploration and understanding nature.

Besides digging a water-harvesting pond the size of half a football field in April this year, the focus has so far been on planting fruit-bearing and indigenous trees and local bamboo species. Apart from a long list of prized possession - olive, guava, gooseberry, mango, jackfruit, wild apple, papaya, pear, star fruit and Arjun tree (Arjuna Myrobalan) - village Mud is now home to the 5.5-feet-tall hog plum tree.