Dogri song sends eco-message far and wide; gets 5 lakh ‘likes’

Dinesh Manhotra
Tribune News Service
Jammu, June 2

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With nearly 5 lakh ‘likes’ and thousands of ‘shares’, the video of a Dogri folk song, created by students of Government Middle School in the remote Dharmal village of Udhampur district with a message of saving trees, is receiving unprecedented response and appreciation across the world on the social media.

In the video, students, under the shadow of Deodar trees with mountains in the backdrop, are appealing to society to protect trees to save the coming generations.

Dharmal is a village situated in the mountainous Dudo zone of Basantgar teshil in Udhampur district, situated nearly 180 km from Jammu. The group of 14 students which has created this video belongs to the marginalised section of society but it succeeded in spreading its message across the world by singing the traditional Dogri ‘paakh’.

“We were not expecting such a huge response from people all over the world,” said Subash Brahmanau, a teacher of the school, who is behind this popular video.

Subash is the writer and composer of this widely circulated video in which students can be seen appealing to people to save ‘rukh’ (trees) by singing ‘paakh’. “As of now, our video has received nearly 5 lakh ‘likes’ and has been shared by thousands of people on the social media,” Subash told The Tribune over phone, adding, “Deforestation is the biggest issue in this mountainous belt so this video was especially made to create awareness among masses to save trees”.

The team of students who prepared the video comprised Kulbir Singh, Purshotam Kumar, Amit Thakur, Yashpal, Ramesh Kumar, Solufa Devi, Sarishta Devi, Pooja Devi, Kajal Devi, Soni Kumar, Barsha Devi, Ambita Thakur, Rakesh Kumar and Surishta Devi.

The students created the video by using stainless plates and spoons, available in the school for mid-day meal schemes. A ‘dholak’ available in the school was the only proper instrument used while shooting the video.