KOCHI: He drives an autorickshaw for a living, but M Syamkumar of Thenkurisi village in Palakkad is a conservation activist at heart. Over the past two decades, he has planted 20,000 trees in and around his village during the brief intervals he gets while transporting passengers.
A Class XII dropout, the 54-year-old is a much sought-after green activist by schools and colleges for lectures on conservation. One can see saplings packed inside his autorickshaw during the monsoon season, which he plants along the sidewalk of roads on his way back after dropping the passengers.
The chirping of birds and squeaking of squirrels welcome visitors at Karipankulangara house in Thenkurisi panchayat, the residence of Syamkumar. He keeps fresh water in earthen vessels on trees and hangs fruits on branches to draw birds and squirrels to his house. His day starts with feeding birds after which he leaves for work.
“My motto is to nurture nature to save the earth. During summer, the temperature soars to 42 degrees Celsius and I have seen farm workers searching for trees to escape the sweltering summer heat. I realised the loss of green cover has led to a rise in temperature and wanted to do my best to help my children breathe in the future,” Syamkumar told this newspaper.
Syamkumar picks seedlings from beneath the trees and grows them in plastic packets at home. To save the saplings from cattle, he places fences made of thorny shrubs around them. From October to May, when rains subside and the plants start wilting, he collects plastic water bottles, punches holes, fills them with water and inserts them in the pits of the saplings for drip irrigation.
“We have to take care of the saplings for two years after which they will survive,” says Syamkumar. He selects trees with large canopies like Indian beech, jackfruit, mango, Manimaruthu (banaba), Malabar plum, banyan, dhanauna or chadachi, neem, cashmere tree and wild guava for planting. He has also cleaned around 15 ponds with the help of NCC and NSS units of colleges in Palakkad.
“The campus of the teacher education centre of Calicut University at Koduvayoor was barren. I approached the principal about planting trees on the campus five years ago and he agreed. Now the campus has turned green and it gives me immense pleasure when I see students eating the Malabar plum sitting under the canopy,” says Syamkumar.
“Palakkad is known for its big palmyra trees. At one time people lived in thatched huts and the big palmyra leaves were used for roofing. Palmyra provided livelihood to the villagers as there was high demand for toddy. Now there are no thatched houses and there is a decline in toddy production as there are no toddy tappers. So, people are cutting down palmyra trees. I planted 1,200 palmyra trees on either side of a 4 km long stretch of Malampuzha canal bund road with the help of NSS volunteers of Chittur Government College,” he said.
Son of a farm labourer, Syamkumar began as a newspaper distributor around 25 years ago. After distributing the newspaper, he used to carry saplings of Gulmohar on his cycle and plant them on either side of the road. In 2010, he availed a vehicle loan to purchase an autorickshaw, which helped him improve his income and take forward his tree-planting drive.
“The one thing that pains me is the lack of awareness on planting trees. Even when the temperature is soaring every year, people are chopping down trees. They plant saplings on World Environment Day and forget them,” he rues.
How does he raise funds for planting trees? “I spare whatever I can from my meagre income,” he smiles. Syamkumar’s wife Sajitha is a homemaker and their son Sayooj is a Class XII student. His daughter Sanjana is a Class VIII student at Koduvayoor Government School.
Awards
Syamkumar got the Kerala Biodiversity board’s Haritha Award in 2010-11, the Kerala Social Forestry Department’s Vanamitra Award in 2012 and the Prakrithimitra award in 2015