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PURI, ORISSA
Juggernaut in a Jam

A shortage of ritual wood makes organizing the rath yatra difficult

By Ruben Banerjee

Bada Danda, the main thoroughfare of the temple town of Puri in Orissa, is chock-a-block with devotees jostling for space to view -- or to have that rare chance to tug -- the three gaily coloured chariots. Amid the cacophony you can just about hear chants of "Jai Jagannath". The procession's progress is painfully slow. It moves ahead inch by inch. But the rath yatra has always been like this in Puri -- chaotic, noisy and frenzied. The frisson of religious fervour that runs through the crowds, however, makes few realise that the annual visit of Lord Jagannath and his siblings, brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra, to their maternal aunt's abode 3 km from the town is becoming more and more difficult to arrange.

The organisers managed it this year on July 3. But will it be any easier next year? It isn't the money or the devotees. In god-fearing Orissa both are guaranteed. The problem lies far away in the jungles. "Wood is becoming a source of real concern," admits Bhaskar Mishra, official spokesman of the Jagannath temple administration. A decade ago, Orissa had nearly 50 per cent of its land area under forest cover. Today the figure stands at an abysmal 12 per cent.

For centuries, the chariots have been made from particular varieties of wood and decked with gaily coloured cloth. For the giant wheels and the axle, only phansi trees will do, while for the body the wood has to come from the asuna and dhaura trees. Green timber is used to make other accessories such as ladders. While asuna and dhaura are still available in plenty, phansi trees have become virtually extinct in the state. The problem is compounded by the fact that the chariots are built afresh every year. For a festival where customs are of ritualistic importance, 72 logs of phansi and 790 logs of asuna and dhaura, besides 274 of green timber, are a must.

Procuring 72 logs of phansi every year would not have been difficult but for the strict stipulation on selection. They have to be 14 ft long and of a certain specified girth. With phansi trees fast vanishing, procurement is becoming more doubtful. Normally, the district forest officer of adjacent Nayagarh supplies timber for the chariots. He still does, but he can no longer roll them in from the local forests. Now, he has to foray deeper, as far away as Anugul and Phulbani districts, to scour for phansi logs that fit the bill.

For all practical purposes, phansi trees have vanished from the districts of Khurda and Nayagarh. In other districts too, things are no different. Making matters worse is the fact that phansi grows only along river banks and takes inordinately long to mature. A phansi tree planted now can be used to make a chariot only 50-60 years hence.

Will the giants wheels be derailed for want of the prescribed material then? That is a sacrilegeous thought and the short supply has prompted a worried Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to announce a Jagannath Ban Prakalp recently. A Rs 6.5-crore project to promote phansi plantations, the scheme will cover around 2,800 hectares of land, spread over six districts. Officials hope that this will help replenish the fast-depleting stocks.

"No efforts are being spared to keep the chariots rolling," assures Sanjeev Chaddha, a forester who is convenor-cum-member secretary of the project. The state Government has also appealed to individuals who have phansi trees growing on their lands to donate them to the rath yatra organisers.

Plans are also afoot to develop phansi in the laboratory. Tissue culture of phansi trees is being tried for the first time to rear trees. Whether they will live up to the festival's exacting standards will be known only decades later but the unique afforestation drive is being seen as a blessing. A blessing for the thousands of devotees who shudder to think the car festival may not be as grand for as unlikely a reason as lack of wood. The chariots simply have to roll on.

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