Come World Environment Day and social media is flooded with posts on green houses gases, global warming, melting of the polar ice caps and what not. Kids do activities in schools, while some people complete the ritual of showing their sincerity towards saving the environment by planting a couple of saplings. However, far from the hullaballoo of social media, a middle aged man from Palamu in Jharkhand is silently spreading the message of keeping the earth green.
Meet Kaushal Kishore Jaiswal (52), who has devoted his life to plantation and conservation of green cover. The man, who has planted 37 lakh trees in various parts of the country and even neighbouring Nepal and Bhutan, has also been recognised and felicitated by more than 34 national and international awards.
Born in the year 1957, he was witness to a major famine, which had occurred in 1966. The condition then was such that people were feeding on leaves. This event left a major impact on him and led him to believe that the root cause behind the famine was the reduced forest cover. He took a major progressive step in order to make sure that a condition of this magnitude does not repeat itself. He planted saplings in 7.72 hectares of his inherited land and converted it into a lush green forest cover. This step formed the platform for his future endeavours in this direction.
Like every good cause, the journey of Jaiswal was also met with much mockery and skepticism. But like a true warrior he overcame every hurdle and did not lose faith in himself. There also came a time when people had started cutting down trees that were planted by him. This led him to launch green campaigns in the year 1977.
Today, Jaiswal is known for his green campaign, which goes by the name ‘Paryawaran Dharma’ or ‘Environment Religion’. In addition to this he also launched the Van Rakhi Movement in which people tie rakhis to trees. This movement worked wonders as it led to 95 per cent survival of trees and saplings in the arid Palamu district. The reason behind this is that people developed a sense of brotherhood for trees and thus protected them from any kind of harm. Eventually, people started getting aware of issues pertaining to environmental conservation, afforestation, perils of deforestation etc.
The two movements have completed 42 years and around five lakh trees have been tied rakhi in light of the Van Rakhi Movement. Jaiswal observed this flair in people for planting trees and launched a campaign in 2000, in which he gave away 15,000 to 20,000 plants in weekly markets free of cost for plantation.
He formulated a mantra for conservation of forests and tress. “This has 8 elements and includes a plantation on one’s birthday, conservation of flora, fauna, land, nature, water and a forest etc. is included. In addition to this he has done quite a lot work in order to curb pollution by expanding the forest cover in villages and kitchen planting,” said Jaiswal.
His work is published in the class eight book of the of the CBSE curriculum as well as in books of the ICSE curriculum.
However Jaiswal sounds modest about his work on protecting environment. On being asked if he has some greater motive behind this good work, he plainly replied that he works for nature and does not expect anything in return. “The best gift mankind can give nature is planting trees. This not only helps the population at present but also the future generations,” he said.
For World Environment Day 2019, Jaiswal has planned to spread his word through his campaign across different regions of India including north, east, west and north-eastern states which will end at Bhutan.