While the households in Odisha joyfully celebrated Prathamastami on Friday by honouring the firstborns of the family and serving varieties of cakes, a 90-year-old man observed the auspicious occasion amid trees in Keonjhar district.
Ghanashyam Sahoo, a resident of Alati village under Ghasipura block, is an environmentalist by his choice. He prefers to honour the trees he has grown as the eldest children on Prathamastami.
He performed all the rituals to honour the trees by tying rakhis on the trees and offered them new clothes, flowers and cakes.
Sahoo has been celebrating Pratahamstami since years in this unique way not only in his village but also in adjacent villages.
Despite facing criticism from villagers initially, he continues his act as part of his love for nature and greenery. The initiative had started 41 years ago after his neighbouring village Puruna Bandhagoda was affected in a devastating tornado on April 16, 1978. Around 182 people were killed and the entire village was void of trees in the calamity.
The incident had created a deep line in his mind and he vowed to plant trees and look after them.
Sahoo began his mission to grow plants at his garden.
He grows sapling at the backyard of his house and subsequently plants those near ponds, roads, open fields, government lands, schools and temple premises.
He takes care of the plants as his children by nourishing them with water.
Several organisations have felicitated Sahoo as a ‘tree man’.