Tathastu Buddy
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??
