In news– Bhungloti creeper that once gave a monk’s robe its saffron hue has made a Buddhist village in eastern Assam’s Charaideo district adopt a forest.
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- Bhugloti is a creeper that in combination with the pith of the roots of a jackfruit tree yields a saffron dye.
- It was the effort of the bhikkhus of Chalapather Shyam Gaon Buddhist monastery who had bemoaned the near-extinction of bhungloti.
- The concern of the monks triggered a movement for conserving the adjoining Chala Reserve Forest.
- In 2018, the people of ten villages in the vicinity converged to form Chala Village Sanctuary Conservation Society and 683.173-hectare reserve forest under the Sivasagar Forest Division was declared as the Chala Village Sanctuary.
- The Chala Reserve Forest is about 100 metres above sea level, but it houses a few orchids that are usually found in higher altitudes.
Chalapather Shyam Gaon-
- It is a Buddhist monastery in the 152-year-old, located in Sivasagar, Assam.
- Sangken Poi festival is celebrated here in the month of April .
- This village is mainly populated by the Khamyang people of Assam and they are the followers of Buddhism
Source: The Hindu
