Ganga ka Mait Biti: Garhwali Ecopoetry Collection about Awakening Lyrics for Environment Protection

Critical and Chronological History of Modern Garhwali (Asian) Poetry –-69 A

Ganga ka Mait Biti: A Garhwali Poetry collection by Ghanshyam Raturi ‘Shailani’

                    Literature Historian:  Bhishma Kukreti

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  Ghanshyam Raturi is the first Garhwali Poet whose Garhwali Poem ‘Chipko Song’ was read in international level on 5th June 1988 in International Environment Day Bangkok with English translation. Ghanshyam Shailani read his lyric and environmentalists appreciated the poem.

        The inhabitants of Garhwal have been conscious about saving environment by birth. There have been tendencies in Garhwal for creating proverbs, folk stories, phrases, folk songs, folk dramas for centuries.

             Chipko Andolan or Hugging Trees Movement caught attention in Garhwal and Kumaon due to culture of protecting environment by people of Garhwal and Kumaon.

        Ghanshyam Raturi ‘Shailani’ was one the front runners of Chipko Andolan with Gaura Devi, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, Sunder Lal Bahuguna and others. Chipko word was taken from the lyric of Ghanshyam Raturi ‘Shailani’.

              The ‘Ganga ka Mait Biti’ a Garhwali poetry collection by Ghanshyam Raturi is totally devoted to Environment and Humanity. Humanity and Environment protection are same and walk together.

 Chipko Andolan impacted deeply Garhwali poetry world and today, every Garhwali poet does not forget to create poem of Environment Protection. Ghanshyam Raturi was one of the poets who was taking parts in Chipko Andolan and was also creating Poems for accelerating the Chipko movement too. 

              There are forty four poems related mainly to Environment, forest, rivers, soil, trees, people and humanity. Ghanshyam also included his poems in this volume those he created for social awareness movement as family planning, alcohol prohibition, emergency, political pollution, greed for power, non inclusive development in rural and urban regions inhuman behavior of present society etc. There are poems about women empowerment too.

          Through his simple phrased poems, Ghanshyam is able to make understand readers about disasters due to sudden flood in rivers of Himalaya.

           The poems are easy to sing and were created for women who did not go to school for formal education. Therefore, all poems of Raturi are easily graspable. The reader would like to sing –

                   गीतकार घनश्याम रतूड़ी 'शैलानी ' के गीत

----------आवा धरती सजावा --

ओ हो नई डाळी नया बण लगावा,

धरती सजावा।

 ओ हो  धरती को संकट मिटावा,

मिली जुलीक आवा

----पेड़ की पुकार ----

खड़ु होयुं छौ जुग बिटीन,

तुम्हारा खातिर मै ज्यूण चांदौं. 

मै तैं न काटा मै छौं तुम्हारो

तुम तैं अग्वाड़ी कुछ देण चांदौं।।

            There is Hindi translation of each poem and there are three translations in English too those were sung in Environment day in Bangkok in 1988.

   The International Environmentalists will always remember the contribution of Ghanshyam Raturi ‘Shailani’ as they appreciate poets as A. R Ammons, Robert Bly, Dickinson, Whiteman, Steven, William C. William, Brenda Hillman, Juan Carlos-Galliano, Forest Gander, Cyrus Cassells , Loma Dee Cervantes, Plamela Uschek etc for their marvelous poetries about Environment Protection.

Book Details-

Ganga ka Mait Biti

Poet- Ghanshyam Raturi

Year of Publication -1988

Publisher- Sarvodaya Kutir

Asisangam, gangori

Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand

Pages- 116

Copyright@ Bhishma Kukreti 20 /6/2014

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Copyright @ Bhishma Kukreti Mumbai; 2016

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