Sam Kothal-an Endangered Jackfruit

Bhadoi Panchali, 07 July, 2016: This is the session of Jackfruit. Almost after a decade when I was visiting towards Dekiajan, I’ve seen the tree of an endangered jackfruit roadside bearing the history of many generations. Then some memories strike to my mind; earlier we had another Jackfruit tree near the road leads to Dihing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary, that tree was in an oil field and once that land was proposed for a public graveyard also.  But when late Kanak Gogoi started opening a Dhaba “Maa 97” the tree was cut down. That was hurting me a lot because that place is supposed to be a useful public place and the tree was the lone Sam Kothal (a comparatively smaller jackfruit) I’ve distinctly seen near my village. That place where that jackfruit was; is called Fasi-bam, the land of suicide, is belongs to OIL.   The public lands occupied by powerful and intellectual fox even after having money and own lands are something odd, am I right! Human greed has no limits. I’ve some stories where public lands are occupied by respected economically and politically powerful people; even Teacher and prominent leaders. Someday I’ll defiantly write about them.

That Jackfruit was important for me because I am a nature conservationist by nature, always gives importance of preserving various plant species in our locality. But the human needs are more with increasing population now a day and most of the trees are cut down for tea cultivations. The different kinds of fruit that were available earlier are rare now, ‘amul’ which has almond like taste; I could remember how I was collecting and tasting different fruits from domestic forest of our village.  The wood of this ‘sam kothal’ is being used to make Assamese drums; I am worried how long these kinds of trees will remain with us in our villages.