Love for green: Healing the hills with trees

EcoWatch
Madhu Bharathi
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Sachidanand Bharti is known as the treeman in Uttarakhand, where he has been dedicatedly planting trees since the last 25 years. He has succeeded in greening about 30000.
Few hills in Uttarakhand were once barren, but now they are lush green, all due to his efforts. Bharti is a school teacher by profession but his real calling is as a climate crusader.

"The holy Ganga emerges from Uttarakhand and nowhere else. So if we do not work dedicatedly and with a pure heart for Uttarakhand, then we will not be able to save it," said Bharti.
Seeing the hills of his childhood turning barren prompted Bharti to use his Sundays for planting trees and soon his mission inspired 15 villages.

"All these hills were barren before without any plants or trees. We started with planting one tree, then two, then three and slowly all the villagers got together and turned this area into a jungle," said Kishan Pandey, a local resident.

Today, more than 25 lakh trees planted by him have created a jungle that supports rivulets.
Sachidanand is now a satisfied man as the hills are green again. However, now his only worry is protecting the forests he created from the timber mafia.