11 Indians Who Are Single-Handedly Protecting The Environment By Planting Hundreds Of Trees

We have all collectively contributed to the destruction of our natural resources and are paying for it with atrocious levels of air and water pollution. But there are only a few who would go that extra mile to take stock of things. These are the green crusaders who have taken up the task of improving the environment, one tree at a time.

Be inspired by these Indians who are doing there bit for protecting the environment:

1. Saalumarada Thimmakka

wikipedia

Saalumarada Thimmakka has no formal education, but she is a self-taught environmentalist. She and her late husband have planted and tended to 384 Banyan trees on a four kilometre stretch of highway between Hulikal and Kudur.

The locals have named her 'Saalumarada', which means rows of trees in Kannada. She continued her work after her husband passed away in 1991. She received the National Citizens Award in 1996 and the Godfrey Phillips Award in 2006 for her work.

2. Gurgaon's Tree Man, Deepak Gaur

A 37-year-old man in Gurgaon man has planted and distributed over 47,000 saplings since 2010. Known as Tree Man, Deepak Gaur, took an interest in planting trees and protecting them while he was recouping from a horrific road accident. He aims to plant a billion trees in the next few years.

3. Jaydev Payeng, "forest man of India''

Jaydev Payeng started planting trees in 1979, and has single-handedly planted most of the trees in the Molai forest. He was awarded the Padma Shri for his contribution to forest conservation for turning 1,360 acres of barren land encircled by the river Brahmaputra into a sanctuary for animals in three decades. What an inspiration!

4. Pamela and her husband Anil K Malhotra

Indiatimes

A couple transformed 300 acres of denuded farmland in Karnataka into what is probably India's first private wildlife sanctuary. The couple spent the last 25 years buying denuded and abandoned agricultural land in Karnataka's Kodagu district and reforesting it, to return the land to a bio-diverse rainforest for elephants, tigers, leopards, deer, snakes, birds and hundreds of other creatures.

5. Tree-loving cop from Alappuzha

V Vidyadharan, an inspector with Kerala police has been planting trees along the roads and walkways in the state¡¯s southern Alappuzha for 40 years, reads a report. He loves trees so much that he distributed saplings as return gifts during his daughter's wedding.

6. Uttarakhand brides plant tree saplings after their marriage

A tree plantation initiative, called Maiti Andolan , is one of the most innovative environmental protection strategies. Once a marriage ceremony is over, the newly-weds step outside to plant trees.

7. Madhya Pradesh break Guinness World Record by planting 66 million trees in 12 hours

Twitter/Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Volunteers in India planted more than 66 million trees in just 12 hours in a record-breaking environmental drive. About 1.5 million people were involved in the huge plantation campaign, in which saplings were placed along the Narmada river.

8. A bus conductor from Tamil Nadu

Yoganathan has single-handedly planted over 1 lakh trees across 32 districts in the state in the last 28 years. He also spreads environmental awareness in schools and colleges and organises plantation drives under which each sapling is named after the child who plants it. How cool is that!

9. Radhika Anand

This 53-year-old resident of Delhi planted over 1,10,000 fruit trees with the help of the Indian Army. She runs a self-funded organisation called Plantology that takes up unique strategies to protect the environment.

10. A Kerala autorickshaw driver

thebetterindia

Shyam Kumar, an auto driver and a book worm, chanced upon a 2,000-year-old book called Vrikshayurvedam. He read that a single tree can make a difference to 10 children at a time. From that point on, he started by planting trees around his house. Taking inspiration from him, people from his village followed suit and planted 23,000 trees around his village of Thenkurrisi.

11. Software engineer and green warrior

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Kapil Sharma, a software professional from Chhattisgarh, has planted over 35,000 saplings all over Bengaluru. He has also co-founded an NGO called SayTrees, dedicated to saving the environment and making the city greener by taking the message to different schools, institutions, villages, and communities.