Hobby blossoms into a mission
MADURAI: ‘There are so many trees in the forest,’ said Rakesh. ‘What’s so special about this tree? Why do we like it so much?’
‘We planted it ourselves,’ said grandfather. ‘That’s why it’s special.’
The Cherry Tree by Ruskin Bond
Police Constable S Sivakumar's hand is as much used to the handle of a garden trowel as it is to the lathi. On the precious days he is off duty, the Melaurappanur resident finds happiness from one of his few hobbies -- planting tree saplings. It is a drop in the ocean you may think, but Sivakumar believes oceans are made of a drop too many.
Attached to the Thirumagangalam Town Police Station, the police constable started the hobby in 2014 when he planted a few trees near a local temple. It felt good and his friends encouraged him to continue planting saplings. Six years and 140 thriving saplings later, Sivakumar knew that the hobby has blossomed into a mission.
The journey was no bed of roses. It hurt him to see new saplings falling prey to stray cattle or withered by a relentless summer sun. His options against these problems were limited. Being a policeman, he was unable to protect the saplings or water them regularly. What he came up with broadened the scope of his mission. He roped in residents in the area in his tree planting mission. Residents started protecting and, often, watering the saplings they planted. Guard-nets have often came in handy.
Sivakumar keeps track of the saplings planted and survived. "They will survive if they are watered for at least a month," he said. He likes native species like tamarind, banyan and peepal. Once they get past the critical one month period, they would live for decades, he says.
A good deed never goes unnoticed
Recently, one of his superior officers saw Sivakumar carrying pots of water on his bike for the saplings on one of his off days. The officer also came to know that Sivakumar was allocating a portion of his free time and his salary for planting and watering saplings. The news was passed to the social media cell of the district police, which recently tweeted Sivakumar's photo along with a brief description of his deeds. Sivakumar told TNIE that he never compromised on his duty as a policeman for watering or planting trees. "I water the plants either before commencing duty or after it," he said.
Would not it be nice to see the arid empty swathes to be homes of towering trees? Would not it be nice, standing under the shades of those behemoths, to hear cries of cicadas on their trunks and the chirping of birds on their branches? Sivakumar agrees.