World Environment Day: Gateway of heaven: India's Northeast States

Northeast, June 5: India as a country has always worshipped nature. It is a 5000-year-old tradition for us. Environmental and ecological conservation concepts have a special place in our Veda and Puranas. Our sages were forest dwellers and worshipped nature.

We have based our scriptures on the conservation and replenishment of our forests and
wildlife. “The Rig Veda adulates deities like Mitra, Varuna, Indra, Maruts, and Aditya, responsible for maintaining the requisite balance in the functioning of all entities of nature, whether the mountains, lakes, heaven, and earth, the forests, or the waters.”
(Vedas and Environment Sustainability – Sanskriti… https://www.sanskritimagazine.com/vedic_science/vedas-environment-sustainability/).

Due to the large population India, today has become a large concrete jungle. We have
exploited nature to its maximum due to population burst, poor waste management,
industrialization, and modernization.

The eight states of northeastern India, namely Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur,
Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, and Sikkim, have still held onto their sustainable,
environmentally friendly, and traditional lifestyle.

The northeast states have been besotted with the most biodiversity-rich regions of the world. During the past three decades, the northeastern states have interested national and international conservation agencies in initiating several priority-setting processes in the area.

They have unique and spectacular biodiversity. People of northeast India have struck a delicate balance between human-environmental interactions, sustainability, and modernization to conserve nature’s bounty, culture, and heritage, which has become a rare phenomenon.

People of the northeast have made nature a part of their daily lives. Their connection with the environment is intimate. The people have not forgotten their ancient tradition of conservative nature and the environment that, unfortunately, the rest of India doesn’t reflect the same.

The communities that took shelter in the northeastern part of the country took care of their
forests and their flora and fauna, and nature, in return, took care of them.

The state boasts of more than 60% of its geographical area under forest cover; the 7500 species of medicinal plants found in the country are grown in the northeastern states of India. The northeast region is the home to six out of nine crucial vegetation types in India.

It represents one of the highest biome biodiversity of the Indian subcontinent. Due to its extensive green cover, and biodiversity the northeast is the hotspot of the world. Residents of the seven sisters state do not believe in molding the environment according to
their selfish motives, and instead, they adapt to their environment.

They follow natural farming and practice sustainable traditional practices. The rest of the country needs to learn the big lesson in environment preservation by this small region nestled in the lap of nature in countries the northeastern part.

Suppose we can find the slightest of inspiration from our northeastern states in conserving the ecological system. In that case, we will turn a few steps away from what looks like the imminent environmental disaster and destruction.

That will be the authentic tribute to our mother earth and the most honest celebration of World Environment Day.