CHENNAI: After braving the loss of his son only days ago, well known activist K Ramadoss passed away on December 30. He was 70.
A life-long crusader for civic and environmental issues, people close to him recall how despite losing his only son he was keen to get back to doing what he does best.
“He was talking about what can be done for the trees after the floods. He was what we call a ‘Mara Thamizhan’, through and through,” says M B Nirmal, founder of Exnora where Ramadoss served as vice president for years.
He recounts how since his younger years, Ramadoss used to carry a hammer and cutting plier to rid trees off boards and banners, often stating that trees do not belong to us and should be apolitical or be used for advertising. “He could tell the name, species, origin and use of every tree just by looking at the leaf. He genuinely cared about them,” recalls Nirmal of the septuagenarian who was instrumental in introducing city farming at the ICF Railway quarters where he took up several civic issues through the years.
“He was a bridge between residents and administrators; he would always intervene whenever there was a problem. For instance, the Ainsley canal pollution - he persistently protested bringing it to the attention of the authorities asking it to be stopped,” said Azarathaiah, President of Pananthope Colony Resident Welfare Association. He added that any issue would be tackled by him even before residents could complain. He had organised over 100 resident-official meetings.
“’Let us not talk about people, let us talk about issues’ - these are some of the words I’ll always remember him for. He never wanted any meeting or protest to turn personal, he just wanted to create solutions for problems,” adds Nirmal, stating it was a huge loss and that hardly anyone had his depth of knowledge on environment.