Trees are not only add scenic beauty but also take an important role in protecting the nature. But ordinary people do not give importance to this subject.   Dr Keliihol Tase and his brothers are not that kind of people. They have done a miracle job. They have planted 500 rhododendron trees at Jakhama, near St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous). Through a press release Dr Keliihol Tase inform this.

Among the 500 species of rhododendron Dr Dr Kelühol Tase takes special care of one. He puts in extra manure, he waters it regularly and tends to it more, in the hope that one day it will become the world’s tallest rhododendron, beating the record-making 108-ft-tall one he saw at Mount Japfü in Nagaland’s Kohima district. He is carrying this memory since at the age of 16.  Tase’s love for rhododendrons can be traced back to when, as a young boy, he would accompany his parents to the potato fields that lie along the path to Dzükou Valley, and witness along the way, a riot of colours.

Nagaland featured in the Guinness World Record for the tallest rhododendron tree in the world which was recorded in 1993. The rhododendron a height of 108 feet at the time of discovery. 

Accorded the status of State Flower, rhododendrons abound in Nagaland. There was a time when dwellers of Razeba area in Phek district were surrounded by the flower. In fact, Razeba, locally known as ‘Dupazhu’ literally means ‘Land of Rhododendron’.

Lesou, an inhabitant of Zhavame village recalls, ‘Our ancestors named the land after the flower. Growing up in the village, we saw Dupazhu filled with rhododendron. It is sad that they are all gone now.’  Zhavame is one of the surrounding four villages that form Razeba Range in Nagaland’s Phek district. It was around the 1970s that the flowers started disappearing because of development, wildfire and human activities.

A recent publication by scientist with the Botanical Survey of India has documented and stressed the need to protect the many unique of Rhododendron. The study also reveals that the endemic R. wattii from Dziikou hills of Nagaland is one of the most critically endangered species in India, with only a few adult trees remaining in their natural habitat.

A study by Vikas Kumar, Sheenam Suri, Chesi Sangma, and Heena Jakhu has revealed rhododendron has health benefits such as prevention and treatment of diseases associated with heart, detoxification, inflammation,fever, constipation, bronchitis and asthma, it informed.

Tase, with his two brothers — Medolekho and Sweyiekhüto — have become famous in Nagaland as the trio who has planted 500 rhododendron saplings of various species. For it, they have done every thing- travelled for months, scaling mountains, spending nights in jungles to retrieve the rare, wild species of rhododendron. Now saplings of the endangered state flower fill five acres of land.

Out of the 500 saplings that the three brothers planted, Dr Kelühol Tase is positive that at least 20-30 of the plants will flower next year. “I know the soil and the weather is favourable but the fact that it is disappearing is undeniable and we need to put in efforts to conserve it”, he says. He hopes to set up centres on rhododendron for research, as well as a modern nursery in near future.