My father bowed down to trees'

President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday called on people to accord equal importance to development and environment as she recalled the relationship her parents shared with nature as she was growing up in rural Odisha.

- Jayashree Nandi

NEW DELHI:

Inaugurating the two-day National Conference on Environment - 2025 at Vigyan Bhawan, she asked people to ponder if it was justified to destroy natural resources that human beings could not create.

Recounting the early years of her life in an Odisha village, she said her family had to rely on dry wood for cooking due to the unavailability of resources. "My father and mother used to collect wood. They would then cut them (into smaller pieces) and make them worth burning. I used to see every day that my father would bow down before the logs before chopping them. I used to ask my father, 'Why do you pray before cutting them?' He would tell me that he was seeking forgiveness," the President said.

Murmu said her father would tell her that these wood pieces were once part of a tree that gave fruits, flowers, air and water. "Now these logs have grown older and dried. Even then, they are helping us," she said.

She saw a similar gesture during farming also. "When I used to go to the farm with my father, he used to pray to the earth before tilling the soil. I asked why? Earth is our mother; she bears so much. There are lots of insects also in the soil. They will also be hurt so I am asking for forgiveness, my father told," Murmu said.