“My Gulmohar tree was like a brother to me. My father presented it on my birthday and I planted it when I was in class 1. Now I’m in class 5. For four years, I’ve been nurturing it. Every day, before I go to school and after school I water it. I used to play around it with my friend all the time. On that day when I returned from school, I was devastated when I found out that my Gulmohar was uprooted. I felt like my brother was killed.” – Elangbam Valentina, the Green Ambassador of Manipur.
Sunzu Bachaspatimayum
Manipur’s Chief Minister, N Biren Singh, on August 7 appointed Elangbam Valentina Devi as the state’s Brand Ambassador for the Chief Minister’s Green Manipur Mission, launched recently to restore the green covers of the north eastern state.
“When I saw the video of this little girl crying like anything, as if one of her family member has passed away, I was so moved by her compassion for the tree, she had to be the brand ambassador,” said Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh.
Valentina, a nine-year old girl cried her hearts out after she found out that the Gulmohar (royal poinciana) tree she planted, four years ago, at the roadside riverbank was uprooted during a road-widening project. The video of her crying, uploaded on facebook by her uncle went viral capturing the chief minister’s attention.
“My intention for uploading the video was not to show Valentina crying inconsolably but it was her afterthought that I wanted to share with others. When I tried to console her to stop crying on the video, she asserted that she will stop only after she plants 20 trees in its place,” confided her uncle, Elangbam Monen Kumar.
“My Gulmohar tree was like a brother to me. My father presented it on my birthday and I planted it when I was in class 1. Now I’m in class 5. For four years, I’ve been nurturing it. Every day, before I go to school and after school, I water it. I used to play around it with my friend all the time. On that day when I returned from school, I was devastated when I found out that my Gulmohar was uprooted. I felt like my brother was killed. There and then I decided that I‘ve to plant 20 trees in its place,”
said the girl from suburban Manipur who stopped crying only after the superintendent of police of Kakching district, Yengkhom Victoria, handed her around 30 saplings on the same day under the instruction by the chief minister.
Valentina is the eldest of three siblings of auto-driver, Elangbam Premkumar. She says she got the ‘nature-bug’ from her father. Besides ferrying people on his auto-rickshaw to fends for his family, Premkumar imbibed his love for nature on his daughter by stressing the inextricable link of human survival to nature on their occasional hiking and trekking he used to take his kids on.
Valentina will be the face of all the ‘green’ activities in the state of Manipur as the brand Ambassador. Besides being the poster girl for promoting green covers in Manipur, this girl from marginalized background will be rubbing shoulders with VIPs during various government sponsored plantation programmes including ceremonial tree plantations, VIP involved plantations, World Environment Day observation and Van-Mahotsava, etc.
The government order issued in the name of the state Governor reads, “ The Governor of Manipur is pleased to appoint Miss Elangbam Valentina Devi, D/o Shri Elangbam Premkumar Singh of Hiyanglam Makha Leikai, Kakching District, Manipur as the ‘Brand Ambassador’ for the ‘Chief Minister’s Green Manipur Mission’ and all official tree plantation activities taken up in the State in recognition of her immense love and exemplary affection for the trees and in order to generate mass awareness on conservation of environment for a period of 1 (one) year from the date of issuing the order.”
While responding on what it all meant for her, young Valentina thanked the chief minister of Manipur for giving her the opportunity for which she incidentally has a full scale plan cut out.
“I’m very excited on being appointed the Green Ambassador. I would like to thank pupu (grandpa) Biren for the opportunity. I hope to be instrumental in re-foresting the barren hills and mountains of our beautiful hilly state,”said the thrilled 9-year old.
Elangbam Valentina Devi lives about 45 km southeast of Manipur’s capital Imphal. She goes to Amutombi Divine Life English School in Kakching town.
