A nine-year-old Manipuri girl’s love and compassion for nature moved people, including the chief minister of the state, and she was appointed the state’s green ambassador. Valentina Elangbam took social media by storm after a video of her went viral, in which the resident of Kakching district was seen crying inconsolably after two trees she had planted were cut down.

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A video of Valentina, the daughter of Elangbam Premkumar and Elangbam Shaya, went viral after it was shared on Facebook by her uncle. The class 5 student of Amutombi Divine Life School in Hiyanglam Wabagai had planted the two gulmohar trees when she was in class 1. The trees, that were planted near the bank of a river that flows by their locality, were recently cut down during the cleaning of the riverbank, and it upset her.

When asked why she cried, Valentina said, “I planted that tree and I love it so much, and it pains me so much to see them cutting it down”.

The girl’s tears touched many hearts online and the video was seen by CM N Biren Singh, who appointed her the brand ambassador for the Chief Minister’s Green Manipur Mission scheme.

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“We are very grateful to the government for such an honour being given to my daughter. As a mother I feel very proud of my daughter,” said her mother Shaya.

Shaya said she regretted that as a parent she had failed to understand her daughter’s passion all this time.

“I have never imagined that my daughter would have such a deep passion. My family has committed that we will fully support her in every venture,” she said.

As per an order issued by the government, Valentina has appointed as the brand ambassador of the scheme for a year. She was also given additional saplings to be planted in her locality.

She will be involved in various government-sponsored tree plantation programmes, including world environment day and Van Mahotsava among others. Valentina will be part of government advertisements and campaigns which promote maintaining the green cover of Manipur.

Valentina will also be provided an honorarium at government rates, transportion facilities, food and lodging facilities by the department that will be sponsoring the awareness campaign.

Her passion for the environment and the recognition by the state government were praised by many online.

Thank you for not appointing another Bollywood celeb! Genuine people like this inspire others a lot more than the fake ones… https://t.co/eCGHkRWnGU — Pradeep Amaresan (@PradeepAmaresan) August 9, 2019

Till the time there are people like her, there is still hope. https://t.co/UuZaotecrK — Nikhil Mishra (@nikhilmi11) August 9, 2019

True love in sync with Nature .

I salute the young girl .🙏 https://t.co/ZcvyfoxISv — muthumani r (@53192ind_r) August 9, 2019

I feel her pain😥! More power to you girl!! 🇮🇳🇮🇳✨🌞 #GreenManipur https://t.co/gMA4r1DMq9 — Meelögsin (@meelogsin) August 8, 2019

Heart touching endeavour. God bless you both… 🙏 https://t.co/dbPhRHvPfC — Vikrant (@vikrantkumar) August 8, 2019

She is one in the millions and must be encouraged so the others can learn the good step, I see the first time on my entire life a small girl cry so badly when the JCB machine cut down the tree. Very emotional and proud for her https://t.co/2WjpAaVdkh — Nongthombam chandrakumar (@chandra985678) August 8, 2019

The Chief Minister’s Green Manipur Mission was launched on June 22 to restore and protect forest areas in the state, particularly in villages. Under the mission, an open gym worth between Rs 5 to 6 lakhs, will be installed in each village that gives up at least 5 acres of land for the development of forests.

The mission has been introduced to develop and protect forests in each and every village of the state.