Shivaji's love for trees is evergreen

The growing importance and demand for Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s Adnyapatra (letter of order) on protecting trees can be gauged by the fact that Nisarg Mitra had to release the order’s second edition of 1,000 posters on February 7.

The NGO had published 2,000 posters in 2008.

“The copies from the first edition were distributed to different organisations in 28 districts and 256 schools in Kolhapur. A few hoardings of this poster were installed in gardens,” said NGO’s secretary, Anil Chougule.

A fresh demand has come from jail authorities to place these posters in jails and sub-jails in the state.

Kolhapur Archival’s officer Ganesh Khodke told DNA that the order on protecting trees is an excerpt from Adnyapatra, originally written by Ramchandra Pant Amatya, a diplomat in the Maratha court.
Amatya’s Adnyapatra is based on Chhatrapati Shivaji’s ideals and principles on a range of topics, including administration, forts, laws and revenue.

“Historian VK Rajwade made the copy of the original Adnyapatra from Pant’s descendents in Kolhapur, and later published it in Modi script. Unfortunately, the original Adnyapatra is not available. The copy that Rajwade had made from original is available in VK Rajwade Research Centre in Dhule,” Khodke said.
Chougule said the excerpt has been translated in Marathi script for printing in a poster form.

The printing cost of one copy is Rs8.50 and the NGO charges Rs10 for each copy as a donation. “But the copies are also available for free for genuine organisations,”
he said.