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About Me

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would   go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree

Martin Luther

Background

                                                           

            Mr. Rambhai Charan, a School teacher, tree-lover and avid planter, plants on the roadside, in the parks, schools, by a lay- by, on the side of a field or next to a wood, anywhere where there is space and light. He buys mostly saplings from the forest department nursery. He has been doing this almost daily for years; has planted a thousand trees in Sabarkantha district since 1982. He has greened all his neighborhood and surrounding areas in Himmatnagar in Sabarkantha by himself. Many residents appreciate his work, and the Forest Department has been happy to support him, supplying trees for his care and planting them every year. “Instead of delivering impassioned speeches, I decided to stir enthusiasm and involvement by writing personal letters,” he says. Every time an obituary appears in the newspaper. he sends a letter of condolence and requests the bereaved family to plant a tree in memory of the departed soul or if he sees any marriage of birthday announcements in the local newspaper, he sends a congratulation note and request them not to do wasteful expenditure in show off and to plant a tree on this happy occasion of their life. More than 40,000 letters have been written so far by one person enlarging his realm of responsibility towards strangers.

                                                             

Rambhai was inspired to go green in 1982 after he planted his first tree in his village and also learnt about the free availability of saplings from the forest department nurseries. “I set myself a target of plating 100 trees a month but I couldn’t have done it alone. So I decided to gate the people of Saba rkantha with me. That’s how I exceeded the target by over for times,” says Rambhai whose passion for trees is awe – inspiring, and sometimes even amusing. He writes about them. He talks about them, He sings about them. He simply picks up plants of ‘peepal’, ‘banyan’, ‘neem’, ‘mengo’, ‘tamarind’ and many others and nurse them as if they were his own childern.

Life History

            He was born in 1962 at Kuava, a small village in Idar in Sabarkantha District. His father was a laborer in a cloth mill in Ahmadabad. He had his early education in the village school and later in Idar. After passing his collage in Ahmadabad, he worked as a truck conductor for a year. Marriage followed and also some good fortune. He joined Public Work Department as a trainer in mountain climbing in Mount Abu in Rajasthan for two years. Thereafter, he joined N.S Patel High School in Sabarkantha district in Gujarat as a primary school teacher. For the last couple of years, he is working in ‘Brundavan’ , a Government school for the same position.

Rambhai With His Wife Kokilaben.

            Presently his family resides in a small town called Himmatnagar in the Sabarkantha District which includes his wife and two sons.Rambhai belongs to middle class family. His father died at the age of 100 and mother passed away at the age of 95. His Wife is a very pious woman always ready to support his initiatives and interests. His elder son, Hrushikesh, is pursuing a course in Computer education while his younger son, Chandrabhan, is a sportsman and plays basket ball at the National level.

Triggering The Interest

            Talking about climbing on this novel concept, Rambhai says since his childhood days he has been writing letters to his relatives, cousins and friends. This definitely helped him for initiating this mission. Some 20 years back when he was doing his masters in Gujarat University, Mr. Ramlal Parikh, the former Chancellor, once told him that he can discuss about trees in his letters so that people could be made aware about the importance of trees. That is how he started writing letters from his very meager sum of pocket money. 

                              

How did this unusual interest get started? The teacher’s memory takes him back to his native village of Kuava. Once, he went to his neighbor’s farm to eat the ripened mango from his mango trees. However, he was forbidden to eat the fruit from the tree. He then decided that he will sow his own mango seeds in his farm and shall not eat any mango from anywhere but from his own tree. For three summers, he nursed his plants with water ferried from afar. And then nature sent him a feed back. “In the third year, when my plantation was but of young adult trees, the water level in the well rose!’ he says.” that itself seemed an end for me and I began to plant the whole extent in frenzy.” He chose a variety of plants plucked from the wild and let nature do the rest.

Why Trees?

Trees help the local climate by reducing the temperature fluctuations between day and night. It prevents flood and soil erosion. Heavy rainfall is stopped in the crowns of the trees and the root network binds the soil, he elaborates. Trees help in the removal of Carbon-di-oxide gas from the atmosphere, produce oxygen, improve biodiversity, protect water conservation, and check soil erosion. Besides other social and communal benefits it provide habitat for wild life. Through the restoration of native forest we are providing new or improved habitat for a number of animal species that rely on forests for food and shelter. Presently, he has a total of three acres of farmland in his village grown into a thin forest land. But he does not want to cut the trees and cultivate crops because during the night time the ‘Nilgai’ inhabit in his dense farm. He wants to protect wild animals and birds in his farm.

The Journey So Far

Every day, he spares at least one hour for his dear plants. His bed room is equipped with materials like twine, scissors and banners for campaigning tree plantation all around. Examples of his planting are evident all around town. Earlier, there was not even a single tree around the playground at his Primary School. Today, 25 big trees encircle it, lending beauty and shade at the campus. He also planted trees around the campus of Gujarat vidyapith, of which he was a student. This was one of the oldest ‘adoptions’ of the good teacher. “If you just take care of these plants for one year that will suffice, after that, they grow without any problem”, he explains.

Innovations in the Idea

The sync between climate change and social forestry I s remarkable for reducing the emissions of green house gases. When Rambhai first started out planting trees in his village during his collage vacation, he received little support from the villagers. They were suspicious of his motives and concerned about losing grazing grounds for their cattle. However flocked to help. Now, the mango, guava and lemon tress provide them a good source of income.

Rambhai began his campaign by getting about 100 mango trees from the forest department nursery and distributing them among the villagers. Though initially reluctant, the villagers were won over by Rambhai ‘he spirit and determination. Today, almost all the houses in the village have fruit-bearing mango trees. They say when the temperature of Idar once raised to its maximum, the temperature in their village was still tolerable because of the green belt of trees grown.

Various Institutional Innovations

After serving for a brief period as a block coordinator for eco clubs, he got promoted as district co-ordinator with a renewed zeal. And it found its manifestation in the massive tree plantation scheme in the region taken up by him. And the result was more than expected and of course satisfying too for Rambhai –around 15,000 students and teachers from 250 schools are now busy looking after more than 5 lakh plants and are being paid for it. The saplings planted under the scheme are both fruit and non-fruit trees. The non fruit saplings have been planted on the banks of the embankment. Fruit bearing plantations were done along canal bunds, schools, roads and government offices’ premises.

I inspected 62 schools in 13 Blocks in2009andalso conducted workshops with Forest Department officials, Zilla Parisad and Panchayat Samitee members,” he said. And it all happened within six months this year.

Innovative Group Activities

He has allotted one tree to every student and the surplus water in children’s water bottle (which is expected to be nearly 500 grams) is used for watering their individual trees. Besides, he has introduced various innovative methods in the eco clubs to feed and protect birds.

Every student is expected to contribute at least one handful of wheat grains for birds’ every day.

During Kite festival, many bird get injured, in order to save their lives, he has institutionalize a network of people who will immediately send these injured birds from one place to another through any available means of transport and finally they will reach special hospitals in Baroda for surgery. This year, they saved 13 birds from injury.

Conservation of trees

Rambhai says, we take all the efforts for conservation. But again, once a sapling grows that would be grazed upon by cattle; people will forget to water them. Even after they grow into trees, people will cut them for firewood. All that is inevitable. That shouldn’t stop us from planting trees.

Capacity building of the people

As trees would be planted on common land, it was inevitable that the Forest Department, the Social Forestation Department and the local municipality would have to be roped in.” I wanted nothing more than their cooperation, I did not want any funds” he recalls.

Motivation of the innovation

In early 90s when he took various green initiatives like writing letters for tree plantation campaign, nobody in his neighbor also knew about this. This shows he is a very self motivated individual. However, his wife has always been a very constant source of encouragement for his various ideas and initiatives. He wife Kokilaben says “ Apni Sab Prayavaran Aur Samaaj Se Judi Kavita Sabse Pehle Humein Sunate The”

Recognition began trickling in for him during late 90s when he became the eco in- charge of his school and began planting trees massively. Environmentalists and the media began to take notice of his self taught man. His first live television interview with TV9 made him popular in his locality and gradually people began to recognize him for his ‘ thankless job’. Soon after some other local and national newspapers like ‘Nishant’, ‘Sandesh’, Divya Bhaskar’ began to publish his poem on various issues relating to trees society , corruption, and politics. In addition to poetry, he also wrote short letters addressing these issues to Gandhi, his ideal man life.

He was very delighted to receive acknowledgement letter for his work done from Swami Sachidanand Maharaj and Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi. He receives replies from 10 persons for every 100 letters he writes for tree plantation campaign. He says nowadays, he mostly receives phone calls to say thank you for the letter received by people. He is so passionate about his work that he even keeps the photo copy  of their reply refer with him for any future reference.

Outcome of the innovation

He visits local schools and colleges to spread the green message. To spread his message, Charan organizes painting, poster and essay competitions at regular intervals, with help from educational institutions. The topics are always related to the nature. “The winners are given saplings as prizes”, he says.

He also meets people during his visits to the residential colonies.” I tell them about the importance of preserving the nature and try to persuade them to plant saplings “ ,he says. He is happy that in many areas the people have responded to his pleadings. Seeing his total devotion to the trees, the people have now taken up the task of taking care of the saplings in their areas.

Feedback from different stakeholders

People think I am out of my mind writing letters and requesting for tree plantation says it is a futile exercise”.

Forest Department

The chief Conservator of Forest Department in Sabarkantha District, Mr. K Ramesh has been handling the social forestry division for the past four years. He says,Rameshbhai is the best in the region and has helped to bring over hundreds of hectares of wasteland under social forestry benefiting 13 blocks of the district and also in other district of Gujarat. He has involved community participation , as part of a derive towards a forestation, and  rehabilitating  the common lands.

Principal of  the School

Mr.Dineshbhai of Briindavan school says “ Yeh Toh Prayavaran Premi Hai , Pure Saal Me Inko 15 Chhutti Milti Hai Aur Sab Issi Kaam Mai Use Ho Jaati Hai”. He Says his school  has become a green belt through various initiatives taken by students and him.

Students

The students of his school actively participate in all the eco clubs related activities. They liked the humour in his class and his simple nature.

Neighbours/friends/relatives

One of his relatives says though he is a teacher of history and geography, his love is planting more and more trees.

Religious gurus

His guru’s disciple in Himmatnagar says, the men who plants trees rescues the ancestors and descendants of both his paternal and maternal lines. Such a men like Rambhai is applauded and reverenced in the world. He has planted hundreds of trees in the ashram long back.

Criticisms faced

People from all walks of life supported his cause when he was working as a line crusader in the society by writing letters, planting trees on his own and other initiatives, But when he became the district co – ordinator for eco clubs he became source of criticism for his strict administration. Some of the eco clubs in – charge complained that he don’t care about arranging ‘chai –pani during any meeting or workshops. Recently, Rambhai adopted a new Court opened in Idar in Sabarkantha for planting trees. After planting around 400 trees with the help of eco clubs students and in – charge ,at the end of the day he received criticisms from Court officials as to why is he planting the trees after half of the monsoon season is over ? Rambhai believes instead of seeing the glass as half – empty , one should begin to see the opportunities of the glass being half – full.  

Failures

I don’t want to take any help from the government, individuals , corporations or voluntary organizations. “ I do not require any financial help from any one, one can find the saplings during the rainy season, they are scattered here and there” , he said. He says “ I feel very insulted to tell the truth, and it saddens me also that not many people supported the cause in financial terms” . Rambhai recalls instances when he got insulted by people whom he felicitated for doing well to society . He established RACHA Foundation in the year 1992 as trust body to set up a trust fund for planting trees, watering, care taking, distributing water jars for animals to drink, conducting workshops for environment education etc. but due to lack of funds the trust got dissolved recently.

He says his wife told him not to ask for any kind of charity form any when but to save money and utilize it. Rambhai, who works as a primary school teacher in a Govt.school , manages to set aside 10 per cent from his monthly salary for the planting of trees. Rambhai says money should never be an abstacle for any good deed. He quotes Kabir’s doha “ Sayeen Itna Deejiye, Ja Mein Kutumb Samaye; Mein Bhi Bhookha Na Rahun, Sadhu Na Bhookha Jaye”

Analyzing the reasons for people’s adoption

“It’s a people’s movement that is not tied to any political party. There is no caste bias either. It will go on from one generation  to another as it is a movement by the common man for the common man.” says him. He then adds in many simple words: “Ped Kabhi Uski Chaya Mein Baithne Wale Se Nahi Puchegi Ki Tum Harijan Ho Yaah Brahmin, Hindi Ho Yaah Muslim”. He has achieved wide success in all the initiatives he has taken so far through the eco clubs platform or otherwise because of the following reasons:

1.                          He has adapted very strict monitory and inspection on the various schools under eco clubs. He physically verifies their performance and refuses to support any fund to them if they did not perform and participate in the various activities suggested to them.

2.                          He discards the idea of traditional reporting system in every three months by the eco in-charge but creativity interacts with them in training workshops, monthly meetings, and appraisal over telephone.

3.                          He has injected by organizing functions in which best performers of various eco clubs schools by organizing functions in which best performers both students and teachers gets awarded for their work.

4.                          Component of  Social interaction, moral support and reciprocity is very high.

Awards and Recognition

              Though many people see and appreciate his work,Rambhai is a bit disappointed because he has not been successful in getting some like – minded to match his spirit and vision.. Two years ago, he founded the Prayavaran Prakriti Partisthan. However, this has remained a sort of one-man’s organization. His interest, however, has not diminished, despite the failure to find similar minds to work alongside him. Besides, he received various accolades for his work;

In December, 2009 he was honored at SRISTI Sanman function.

In the same year he was awarded the National Green Corps trophy by the Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India.

He also got Rs. 500 as an award for his poem published in a local newspaper.

Hobbies and interests

Rambhai Charan has versatile interests. His hobbies includes Reading, Poetry writing, Singing, Photography, Playing the flute and Cooking. Besides, he has also been awarded certificates for  Senior training in First Aid and Home Nursing. During his period of studies he joined N.C.C and undergone training

for three years form 1979-82.He has also completed advance level in the training of Rock Climbing for three years from 2001-03. He also participated in three Shodh yatras organized in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh.

During late 90s when the much debated issue of Narmada dam aroused, Rambhai Completely supported the building of dam. He then started a “Narmada Banao” cycle rally whereby he led the tem of 35 students and covered 270 km in 10 days. They campaigned for favour of the dam construction in several places in the Sabarkantha Districts. They cycled from Demai to Bayad to Balasinhor to Paragad to Bodali and finally to Narmada colony. This cycle rally attracted much media and public attention all across the district.

Future Plans

Engaging over fifteen thousand people, including students, teachers, government officials from 13 talukas of Sabarkantha district and planting over 5 lakh saplings is not just the end of mission. His goal is to plant as many trees as possible before he dies. Rambhai has never asked for his share of the fruits from the thousands of trees he has planted. His only hope is that one day he will be awarded by the President of India for his work so that it is not lost forever after he is gone.

He also plans to open an eco school in the mountains near to his village.

Students from all over the nation will learn about the ecological conservation, protection of wild life animals, Nature etc. in this school.

On the personal front, he wants to retire as a teacher and practice law in the years to some.

He waits for me to leave. In a moment, he will return to his trees, his soul.

I really thank Rambhai for the yeoman service he is doing for posterity The hurdle created by those who cut down the trees only reflect their selfishness ... who don’t even want to think own children...leave alone posterity!!!! I salute the lone crusader and promise myself that I will follow his way some day for others to enjoy something called nature!