National Forest Martyrs Day 2021

National Forest Martyrs Day was first observed in 2013 after the Ministry of Environment and Forest announced this holiday throughout India. In India, every year, the 11th of September is observed as National Forest Martyrs Day.

There is a heart wrenching story about why such a day is observed now. It goes like this,  In the year 1730, during the reign of Maharaja Abhay Singh in Rajasthan, it was ordered to cut down the Khejarli trees. But, the people of Bishnoi community residing at the village considered  this tree to be sacred and was against the idea of chopping them down.

When the army of Maharaja Abhay Singh began the process of shedding down the trees, a brave and courageous woman named Amrita Devi stood against it. As brave a woman she was, she reportedly told them to behead herself rather than the Khejarli trees. Sadly, the Maharaja’s men mercilessly beheaded her followed by 359 others before this dreadful news reached the ears of the Maharaja. The Maharaja soon ordered to stop the felling of trees The King also apologised to the community and issued a decree engraved on a copper plate to prohibit the cutting of Khejarli trees and hunting of animals within and near Bishnoi villages forever.

This massacre that took place on September 11, 1730 was the root cause for the declaration of National Forest Martyrs Day in 2013.

Nuakhai

Nuakhai is celebrated People across Western Odisha on 11.09.21. Nuakhai is celebrated by offering porridge prepared from new paddy crop (Nabanna) to the Goddess Samaleswari, the presiding deity of western Odisha, to seek blessings for a bumper harvest.

The agrarian festival is observed on the fifth day of the lunar fortnight and the day after Ganesh Chaturthi on Hindu Bhadrapada month. On the auspicious occasion, family members and relatives join for a get-together with a feast to mark the day.

The younger members of the family seek the blessings of the elder ones by offering ‘Nuakhai Juhar’.