A septuagenarian retired headmaster has hogged the limelight for spending his pension in plantation and encouraging students in schools and colleges to plant trees to save the environment.
Meet Dwarikanath Senapati, the retired headmaster, who is a resident of Pakhada village under Garadapur block. But for last 15 years, he has been planting trees in his locality. He was an ideal teacher and has fame for his literary activities as well.
Though the soft spoken teacher is an ordinary man but his ambition is an extraordinary. He targets to see all the schools, unused lands, road sides and river embankments turn green. Since 1982, he has been on this green mission by encouraging the locals to plant trees. According to Senapati, he has planted 40,000 trees in last one decade. He has been spending money from his pension to distribute tree saplings among the locals and requesting them to take care of the plants till they grow big.
Forest plays an important role in protecting from the catastrophes like cyclone and tsunami, besides maintaining ecological balance and controlling the environmental pollution. Even mangroves species are the Earth's natural filtering system, capable of absorbing pollutants, carbon dioxide and storing carbon in their sediments, thereby lessening the impacts of global warming, stated Senapati.
Senapati has won accolades and bagged several prizes and felicitations from different organizations for encouraging plantation among the youths. Besides, he has formed a trust and also set up a library in the name of his late youngest son, who died in a road mishap, to help the needy ones.