Devender Sura – Popularly Known as the ‘Tree Man’ of Haryana

Devender Sura, a constable in the Haryana Police, is Known as Haryana’s ‘Tree Man’, but why? Wait, we’ll let you know. He is an athlete, and a father of two, who turned environmentalist post noticing the decrease in forest cover in his state and chose to rebound that on his own. 

His journey started in 2012 when he began pla­n­ting trees in Son­ipat. He says, “We pla­nt around 50 thousand tre­es every year, with an emphasis on Indian species like lilac, ban­yan, and fig.” With his father bearing all family expenses, he expends his earnings on a tree plantation. “I’ve been spending all my income on this for the past twelve years.” His motivation for the act is that Materialism is increasing. The public is cutting trees for it. As a result, bird species are losing their homes, which is resulting in the demise of many bird species. We are disturbing the earth’s balance, and need to restore it”, he says. 

Through a public campaign, Sura has so far conn­ected with 11,500 youth across his state and they  pla­nt trees, preserve them, and assure their safety. “We address them, Paryavaran Mitra”. He recalls a moment when Har­y­a­na had a lot of greenery. “Our for­est cover is 90 percent destr­o­yed, and water levels are moving down. I wish people to be conscious of the cost of materialism they had to pay” More interestingly, he has inaugurated a “Janata Nursery” along the Son­i­pat-Gohana highway, where around 25k sapli­ngs of different species of trees are formulated each year for distribution free of cost.

Our society needs more environmentalists like Devender Sura, who happily accepts the responsibility to bring change. Why can’t we??