元祖「エコ戦士」　ヒンズー教ビシュノイ派、環境保護に全身全霊

【ジョドプール（インド）ＡＦＰ＝時事】インド西部ラジャスタン州ジョドプール郊外の村で、子ジカに哺乳瓶でミルクを与えていたゲバール・ラムさん（４５）は、ヒンズー教ビシュノイ派の信者だ。動物の世話に心血を注ぎ、施設で保護した動物を野生に返す活動を続けている。（写真は動物保護施設で子ジカにミルクを与えるラムさん）
　１５世紀に創始され、現在の信者数を約１５０万人とするビシュノイ派は、あらゆる生命を神聖視し、肉食を避け、枯れた木以外は伐採しない。動物や樹木を守るためなら自己犠牲もいとわないインドの「エコ戦士」だ。火葬では木を切り倒してまきを準備する必要があるため、土葬を習慣としている。
　言い伝えによると１７３０年、ラジャスタンの王は燃料となる木を切るためにビシュノイ村に家来を送った。すると、アムリタ・デビという女性が家から飛び出し、木の幹にしがみついた。だが、王の家来は容赦なく、女性の首と一緒にその木を切り倒した。
　デビの３人の娘たちが後に続き、同じく首を切られると、さらにビシュノイの老若男女、子どもたちまでもが次々と木に抱き付いては首を切り落とされた。村にある記念碑には、犠牲となった村人３６３人の名前が刻まれている。
　「首をはねられるのは、木が切り倒されることに比べれば、大したことではない」という言葉を残したデビ。命懸けで守ろうとしたガフの木は今、ラジャスタン州の木となっている。
　村の女性シタ・デビさんは、アムリタ・デビを英雄だと言う。彼女の一家は厳格なベジタリアンで、調理に使用するのはまきではなく、牛ふんを固めた燃料だ。
　７人の子どもを持つデビさんは、親のいないレイヨウの子どもに母乳を与えたこともある。
　「畑仕事をしていたら、レイヨウの子どもが野犬に襲われていたので、保護して家に連れて帰りました」「私のお乳を飲ませて、元気になったところで野生に返しました」と誇らしげに話した。
　ビシュノイの男性はほとんどが農民で、動物が傷つけられたり、狩りの獲物にされたりすることがないよう地域を見回っている。そのうちの一人、ランパル・バワドさんは自警団を立ち上げ、密猟を見つけたら「警察に訴え、犯人が罰を受けるまで事件を追及します」とＡＦＰに語った。
　世界が気候変動と闘う今、「もっともっと木を植えるべきです」とバワドさんは言う。「自然と調和し、生きとし生けるものに優しくあるべきです」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/01/30-15:19）

Surrounded by deer and antelopes, Ghevar Ram caressed an injured fawn at a rescue centre run by India's Bishnoi community, who have been fighting to protect the environment for more than 500 years.
Ram, a member of the Hindu sect, has devoted his life to animals, bringing those in distress to the centre and taking care of them until they are fit enough to be released back into the wild.
I treat animals like my own children. This is what we are taught since our childhood, Ram, 45, told AFP as he bottle-fed the fawn ahead of the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal next week.
The Bishnois are India's original eco-warriors, willing to sacrifice themselves to protect animals and trees.
The sect, established in the 15th century by Guru Jambheshwar and which now claims about 1.5 million members, believes in the sanctity of all life, shunning meat and avoiding felling living trees.
Spread mostly in hamlets across Rajasthan, the community draws inspiration from Amrita Devi, a Bishnoi woman killed in 1730 while trying to protect a khejari -- now the state tree.
According to legend, a local king in the desert state sent his men to cut wood to fuel cement lime kilns to build his palace.
Devi rushed out of her home in a Bishnoi village to block them, clasping a tree trunk to protect it.
Despite her pleas, the men did not stop. She then hugged a tree, but the king's men showed no mercy and chopped down the tree along with her head, said Sukhdev Godara, a retired schoolteacher, his eyes glistening with emotion.
Her last words were recorded as: A chopped head is cheaper than a felled tree.
Other Bishnoi villagers -- beginning with Devi's three daughters -- followed suit, hugging the trees as they were decapitated.
In all, 363 Bishnoi men, women, and children were killed, their sacrifice now commemorated with a monument in the village inscribed with each of their names and topped with a statue of Amrita Devi.
- 'In harmony with nature' -
The martyr is now a hero for the likes of Sita Devi, who fuels her cooking fire with cow dung cakes rather than firewood to feed her strictly vegetarian family.
A mother of seven, she also once breastfed an orphaned antelope fawn.
I was working in the fields when I saw a fawn being attacked by feral dogs. I rescued the fawn and brought it home, she said, dressed in a traditional long pink skirt and sparkling gold jewellery.
I fed the fawn my own milk, and once he regained strength, I released it in the wild, she recalled with pride.
Although a subsect of Hinduism, the Bishnoi do not cremate their dead because that would mean cutting down trees to fuel the fire.
Our guru taught us to bury our dead instead, said schoolteacher Godara.
Bishnoi men are mostly farmers and patrol the land to make sure no animal is harmed or hunted down.
Advocate Rampal Bhawad co-founded the Bishnoi Tiger Force, an environmental campaign group and anti-poaching vigilante organisation, after Bollywood superstar Salman Khan shot dead two black bucks while filming a movie in Rajasthan in 1998.
The community followed the case assiduously for 20 years until Khan was sentenced to five years in jail by a local court for violating the Wildlife Protection Act.
The penalty was later suspended on appeal, but not before Khan had spent several days in prison.
We file police complaints and pursue cases till the guilty are punished, Bhawad told AFP.
In a world fighting the insidious effects of climate change, he said, we should plant more and more trees.
We should live in harmony with nature and be kind towards all living beings.