PARADIP: Five years back, Lunukula village under Kujang block of Jagatsinghpur district wore a barren look. It’s green cover had been robbed of by a series of natural disasters, and whatever remained was devoured by timber smugglers.
Today, the village - home to 2,000 people - has 500 varieties of trees. Lunukula got its gift of greenery from Jagatsinghpur’s Brukhya Manab (Forest Man) Amresh Naresh Samant who created a ‘gramya jungle’ (rural forest) in the village on three acres of land.
Samant started planting the trees in 2015.
“When I started this initiative at Lunukula, villagers were not aware of the importance of trees and the green cover. It took me some time to make them understand why planting trees is important to maintain the ecological balance. Today, they themselves take care of the trees”, says 46-year-old Samant, an engineer at Paradip Port Trust who is on a mission to create rural jungles across Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts.
Samant, popularly known as Brukhya Manab in the area, has created forests across 50 acres of land in 20 villages of both the districts.
His over 100-member team along with participatory management by locals has been the mission’s driving force.
A resident of Biswali village under Kujang block, Samant took it as a challenge in 2015 to do his bit to restore some semblance of ecological equilibrium in coastal villages which are worst affected by natural disasters due to lack of forest cover.
For him, the knowledge that forests are a way of life and sustenance for many, was enough motivation to embark on the mission to create large-scale man-made jungles in villages.
Lunukula is one of the 20 villages like Paradeepgarh, Kothi, Biswali, Apania, Narendrapur, Uchabanandapur, Gadaromita, Patelipanka , Mahakalapada and many others in Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts which has been a part of the rural forest endeavour.
With help from local organisations like Baba Baluenkeswer Gramya Bikash Parishad and Adarsh Prayas, Samant’s team has planted trees at road sites, canal embankments and also distributed saplings to villagers. In Paradip, the team had planted more than 300 palm trees in 2016 to arrest the impact of lightning.
To attract birds to his rural forests, he has put up bird houses and clay pots with bird feed on each of the trees that he has planted. His endeavours towards greening villages do not end here.
Recently, he cycled for 715 km for 10 days between December 21 and December 31 to create awareness on environment protection and plantation drive in eight districts - Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Kendrapara, Jajpur, Puri, Khurda, Ganjam and Balasore. He has also interacted with school children, women groups, elected representatives, environmentalists.
For his contribution towards creation of ‘gramya jungle’ and environmental awareness drives, Samant has been felicitated by Governor Ganeshi Lal and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on many occasions. In 2019, he received Brukhya Manab Award by Odisha Paryavaran Sanrakshan Abhijan.
Samant, who now wants to create urban jungles to minimise the impact of pollution, says planting trees is a habit that he cultivated in his childhood.
“I want to use this habit to make villages, towns and cities greener”, he says.