New Delhi:

In this age of environment-consciousness, all of us think of doing something for nature. However, few of us are able to translate that into action. Notably, there are some men & women who have taken the gigantic step & planted whole forests in India. Some of them were poor tribals & saw the hardships animals, especially, have to face in drylands. Others had access to resources & decided to use them to help reverse climate change:        

Saalumarada Thimmakka

Saalumarada, a native of Karnataka, is noted for her work of planting and tending to 385 banyan trees along a 4 km stretch of highway between Hulikal and Kudur. She has also planted nearly 8000 other trees with the support of her husband. She says she finds solace in planting trees.

She received no formal education and worked as a casual labourer in a nearby quarry. Her work has been honoured with the National Citizen's Award of India. Her work was recognised by the Government of India and she was conferred with Padma Shri in 2019.

Deepak Gaur

Gurgaon's Tree Man, Deepak Gaur

37-year-old Deepak Ramesh Gaur first began taking interest in greenery in 2012 after a horrific road accident left him in coma for over six months. “In that moment, my life changed and I realized the criticality of nature and humanity. Trees provide us oxygen and are the earth’s natural ornament. Our world would be denuded sans them,” said Gaur.

He has already planted and distributed over 6 lakh saplings since 2012. He calls former President, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, his ideal and takes inspiration from him.

Jaydev Payeng

Jaydev Payeng, "the forest man of India''

Jaydev Payeng, a native of the famous Majuli Island in Assam, saw hundreds of snakes lying dead and coiled up due to lack of shade in the summer of 1979. At least, 1,360 acres of land on the island had become barren due to continuous erosion from River Brahmaputra. He decided then and there that something has to be done.

He started planting trees and has, since then, single-handedly created the entire Molai forest. He was awarded the Padma Shri for his feat. The forest is a sanctuary to tigers, elephants, deer & myriad other wildlife today.

Pamela Malhotra

Pamela Malhotra

Pamela Gale was born in 1952 in New Jersey. She met and married an Indian restaurant owner with whom she shared a common dream of creating a forest. They moved to Hawaii, worked hard & lived off one person's wages to fulfill their dream. Later, the couple moved to India, in the Kodagu District of Karnataka, and started the SAI (Save Animals Initiative) Sanctuary Trust.

Today, the wildlife on their sanctuary includes Bengal Tigers, Asian Elephants, Hyena, Wild Boar, Leopards, Sambhar and the Giant Malabar squirrel. In 2017, she received the Nari Shakti Puraskar by President Pranab Mukherjee for her noble achievement.  

V Vidyadharan

Tree-loving cop from Alappuzha

An inspector with the Kerala police, V Vidyadharan, has been planting trees along the roads of southern Alappuzha in Kerala for 40 years. He carries saplings even in his police jeep. He loves trees so much that he distributed saplings as return gifts during his daughter's wedding as well.