A train journey to Allahabad changed his perception towards life. Popular by the name of Triveni Baba in rural Haryana, the man is on a green mission. “Death is the ultimate truth,” interprets Baba from the writings of Swami Vivekananda, which inspired him. A book that he bought during a journey to Uttar Pradesh changed the vision of this man.
People soon started to recognise him as triveni baba as he took the task of educating the masses and encouraging them to plant three trees namely Banyan, Neem (Azadirachta indica ) and Peepal (Ficus religiosa) in groups taking into account their religious importance and the way this trees have contributed to the prosperity of ayurveda and ecology in the Indian sub-continent.
A postgraduate in history, Satyawan, which is his real name, started his campaign 20 years back by planting trees in a cremation ground in his neighbouring Saral Village in Haryana. After that there was no looking back and as claimed by Baba, he has planted 10 lakh trees in past two decades. Planting trees has become his passion.
An ardent follower of the teachings of Swami Vivekananda, Baba said, “To mark the 150th birth anniversary of his teacher he will plant around 1.5 lakh trees in one year. Planting trees is one of the most auspicious duties one can do for the betterment of the society.”
To procure the saplings, Baba, takes the help of forest department and local Government bodies. “I ask people to plant at least one sapling to celebrate a birth, marriage and in memory of a departed soul to enrich environment and save it from various atrocities of never ending human greed,” he added.
The ascetic who has renounced all worldly pleasure to save the environment said, “The forest cover in the country is deteriorating at a very fast pace. Due to use of fertilizer and massive use of water for irrigation has had an adverse effect on the ecological balance. Cancer has become a household disease due to extensive use of fertilizer. In such a gloom and din one can contribute to the betterment of mankind by just planting a tree.”
Haryana is not bestowed with much natural forests and only 3.52 per cent of its geographical area is under notified forests says Baba.
The State Government has been trying to increase the total area under forest cover to 10 per cent for the past six years but it invited ire of Comptroller and Auditor General in 2012 for “lack of planning” as area under forest and tree cover remained almost stagnated despite spending Rs 539.58 crore on related schemes, he adds.
The environmentalist adds that, India has reached the Rocket Age from the Stone Age but in the due course people have only exploited nature. It is time that we give something back to it or soon there will be a big ecological disaster which will script the doomsday for the human civilisation.