The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Growing trees is his passion

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 17, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Growing trees is his passion

D. Chandra Bhaskar Rao

Ramaiah picks up plastic covers for growing plants

– Photo: G.N. RAO

Setting a model: Ramaiah, the man on a green mission.

KHAMMAM: Any public event in Khammam will be incomplete without the participation of Daripalli Ramaiah. Who ever be the guest of the day, he makes it to the dais and gets duly honoured. But the show ends up with the man collecting plastic covers strewn by the crowds. He would be otherwise been mistaken for a rag-picker or a rustic.

But he is one who is more popular than any one else in the district, thanks to his selfless mission. Familiar to one and all as ‘Vanajeevi,’ he is a man with thousands of trees growing to his credit. He collects the waste plastic covers from refuse boxes with a purpose. He uses them for raising saplings of a wide range of species. Cleaning the plastic waste, he says, keeps the environment clean.

Proud possession

He could be identified anywhere just with his pride possession - a bicycle, a few iron rings with the message ‘Vriksho Rakshati Rakshitah’ painted on them and a tiny crowbar used for planting the saplings. He sets out at in the morning pedalling along the lanes of the villages and thoroughfares in the town hunting for barren spaces. He carries a minimum of 100 saplings in his basket. He goes on planting them in school grounds, hospital premises and government offices.

Doing all this single-handedly with none coming forward to share his burden, he often finds himself alone. But the public apathy to his cause never had a dampening effect on the spirits.

For the past 15 years he had been on the planting spree and wants to be so for the rest of his life. His wife Janamma shows equal commitment to his cause. Both are bent upon achieving a ‘Vriksha koti’ their ultimate goal of planting one crore saplings.

The 55-year-old Ramaiah genuinely claims to have, in a way, already achieved this goal. Every year he sows a large collection of seeds of the shady trees in the hillocks and barren patches on the highways. He does this all at no cost. The onset of monsoon brings about a fresh cover of sprouting saplings at the places he sows seeds in summer.

His house in Reddipalli village stands out with the ‘green’ message. It is packed with huge stocks of seeds which include neem, subabul, teak and many other shade-giving species leaving, in fact, very little living space for the couple.

Government support

The administration has been paying the environmental activist Rs. 1,500 a month to support his mission. Officials, as he claims, have promised to enhance it, but it has not materialised so far. A nursery to support his mission is what all he has been dreaming about.

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