Beautiful scenery is always hidden in places that are rarely visited.
The green sky is chasing the exposed light yellow in the distance, stretching all the way, entangled for dozens of kilometers. This is Jirigalatu's home. He spent more than 30 years transforming his home into a charming landscape painting.
Jirigalatu home ranch aerial photography. China Youth Network reporter Wang Zeng, photographed by
Jiri Galatu is a herdsman in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Wushen Banner Wushenzhao Town Buridu Gacha . He is a famous local desert control and afforestationist with an annual income of more than 100,000 yuan. But he still insists on planting trees every day because he knows the significance of green to this land.
"My fathers often say that this was once a grassland, but when I was a child, I could only see the boundless desert. The yellow sand in the sky swept across all the trees." Jirigalatu sat in a new house that had just been built in the past two years and told the reporters the story of that year. Behind him was a beautiful grassland picture, with rivers, green grass, and cattle and sheep. He said, "I must be able to restore this place to its original appearance!"
"I want the next generation to live a good life"
"When I was 19 years old, my uncle's house was in trouble, the house was buried, and the door could not be opened. After my mother saw it, she, a person who never cried, cried and said that people could not stay in this place." The weather was really bad at that time, with strong winds blowing almost every day, sand and dust raging, covering the sky and the sun. The goats rested on the ground for a while, and the wool was covered with sand, so they couldn't stand up. "My grandfather encountered an sandstorm while going out to grazing, and never came back."
Jirigalatu (second from left) family photo. Photo by Wang Zeng, reporter of China Youth Network
"I have such a wish in my life. My previous generation died of wind and sand. I cannot let my next generation suffer this kind of suffering again. I want them to live a good life."
"We have enough pastures for ten sheep to eat!"
In 1984, the pastures in the village were placed for contracting for herders' families. Each person has more than 150 acres of grassland, and the family of Jirigalatu is divided into 700 acres. In this way, Jirigalatu began to take his whole family to control sand and plant grass.
The grassland at that time was scattered on the back of the sand dunes. If a night of wind blows, the sand dunes can bury a grassland. Sand fixing is not an easy task. Salishu is one of the few plants that can grow in Mu Us Desert . Jirigalatu chose this plant to fix the sand. At that time, he and his wife, who had just married, drove a small donkey at home to look for Shaliu more than 30 miles away. After finding it, I came back with a donkey camel and started planting sand willows around the sand dunes. But after a busy day or two, I finally surrounded the sand dunes. After a night of wind, all the sand willows were buried again. After burying it and starting again, they began to plant from the top of the dune again. After repeated repetition, the effect was very little, and the willow is still missing.
Jirigalatu took his family to repair the meadow fence. Photo by Wang Zeng, reporter of China Youth Network,
"Sowed and buried, we have been buried for about five or six years." Jirigalatu remembered that they did not really figure out how to uniform sand dunes until 1990: first fix one slope , and then treat a bunch of mounds. He and his wife found one side of the dune and planted the willows from head to toe, so that the willow branches would not be buried.
Jirigalatu and his wife were very happy to see the dunes no longer move. Whenever a mountain is fixed, the two will encourage each other and say, "We have enough grasslands for ten sheep to eat." In this way, the two support each other and have come to this point.
Now, Jirigalatu has spent more than 30 years of hard work to control sand dunes and expand the scattered 700 acres of grassland into more than 12,000 acres of grassland that stretches for more than 10 kilometers. Among them, 80% of the pastures can be grazed! "In 2018, I have realized my desire to plant trees from the easternmost end of the pasture to the westernmost end of the pasture," he said. According to the requirements of grass-farming and animal balance, the Jirigalatu family can now raise more than 700 sheep, but they only retained more than 160 sheep. "These sheep are enough," Jirigalatu said, "The grassland is our home business, but we cannot use up all our home business in our lifetime."
China Youth Network reporter followed Jirigalatu on the greened sand dunes. There was water accumulated at the foot of the sand dunes, which was the rainwater that was left here.In recent years, rainfall in the Mu Us Desert has increased significantly. Locals say that this year only had winds blowing for two days, and in the past, strong winds often took place in spring.
"Everyone says I am a hero for sand control, but no matter how hard I work, if there is no national call and policy for planting trees, afforestation, wind and sand fixation, and if the overall environment is improved, no matter how hard we work, it will be in vain." Jirigalatu told the reporter of China Youth Network that he has always been inspired by the words of Grandma Baoriledai, the first generation leader in tree planting and sand control: In a large desert, there is a seedling that will slowly conquer the entire desert, and the power of a seedling is so great! Baorigalatu once inspired himself with this sentence, and over the years, this sentence has also deeply inspired Jirigalatu, "This is what I do!" he said.
"My life is in the sand." This is a sentence that Jirigalatu said. Living in the northern border of the motherland, he has integrated himself into the process of building a beautiful scenery in the northern border of the motherland in the nearly stubborn tree planting process for more than 30 years. Protect a piece of green and guard our homeland! (Reporter Zhang Ruiling, Yang Yue, Wang Zengeng)
