Our society often sees old aged persons as a burden. Many are left alone and they turn destitudes, in search of a respectable shelter to live and die. People often don't care about the lives of the old and the sick. Thank fully, there are good samaritans in the country, at least in city, which has taken onto itself, what others have chosen to ignore. This is the inspiring story of Mr. George Rakesh Babu of Hyderabad who started the nonprofit Good Samaritans India.

What is it?

The Good Samaritans India first started as a free clinic in 2008 by the George to help treat sick people, dress their wounds and so on. Today, it is a full fledged 'destitude' home and has presence in three branches in Hyderabad, Warangal and Aler and are today serving 150+ residents.

The Good Samaritans is a very small group of medically trained persons who provide basic health care and also run a small free pharmacy. It was registered as a formal trust in March, 2011 with George and his co-founders Sunita and Yesukala. It is an absolutely profit free organization that aims to rescue people and take care of them for free.

The turning point.

An event manager by profession, George Rakesh Babu was always passionate for helping the needy. However, the inspiration for starting Good Samaritans came from a person – Ganesh Prabhu who was the Zion Children's Home. George know Ganesh for many years and was inspired by the good work done by him for homeless children.

Ganesh, a priest, had dedicated his life and all money for the wellfare of orphan children. One day, he was told by his landlord to vacate his premises along with all his children in care as he had no rent to pay. George and his few friends got together and arranged for all the kids to be shifted to other orphan homes in the city within few days. But Ganesh was heartbroken and had no place to go. As fate would have it, George wanted to him to the new place but the same day the landlord forced him leave in morning. As Ganesh sat on his chair with luggage, waiting for George, his health deteriorated. A child took him to a relative's place where he finally passed away. His death came as shock for around 60 children under his care.

When George, along with a few of his friends, began hunting for a place to lay the old man’s body to rest, not one crematorium agreed to offer place for burial. Finally after numerious rejections, George managed to find a crematorium in outskirts to bury the priest. At the burial site, George was moved by the sight of the 60 inconsolable, orphan children who were crying and saying 'daddy don't go!'

This episode had a deep impression on George. On that day he decided, that he wouldn’t let any person who is alone or has been abandoned die a nameless death. Each one has the right to live life to the fullest in their final days and the right to a dignified death. That was the start of Good Samaritan India.

The Good Samaritans:

Good Samaritan was found with the thought that every one wants to be loved, irrespective of their caste, creed or color of humanity. After George started his own clinic and home for destitudes, people started approaching him and asking for help. He started getting many abandoned people seeking shelter. Sometimes even children would bring with own elderly parents and relatives pretending they didn’t know them.

The abandoned people seeking shelter included many elders who were suffereing from serious medical conditions like cancer patients. They were seen as burden by their children as treatment was expensive. At Good Samaritans, despite limited resources, they were looked after and cared with alternative treatment and help was sought by George from doctors and expert just so that their pains could be relieved and they could live longer. Once they died, the children would take away the bodies. There are countless such stories of family abandonement and deceit that elders at Good Samaritans could share. However, Good Samaritan had its doors open for everyone seeking love and care.

Today Good Samaritans also reaches out to those who seek help via social media. His story did rounds on facebook when he rescued and rehabilitated an aged, old women which he found a women, covered in her own dirt and fighting for life in harsh rains at a railway station. That led him to do more such rescues across the city. If left unrescued, many of such persons would die of starvation and heat and would up in municipality hospital's mortuary with no records.

It is at Alwal home where the sick and dying are treated and once they have recovered, they are moved to the Warangal shelter where they live together as a family, enjoying a sense of security and belonging. There are group therapies being conducted and all residents share the duties of the house and help in any way they can. Some of them even end up taking up menial jobs like becoming security persons, doing household chores or practice poultry farming.

The work at Good Samaritans hasn't come easy. George says that he has been threated by his wife for divorce many times but doesn't blame her. After all, George has very little time and sometimes he is unable to even pay the school fees for his children. But the end of the day, George and his wife understand that they have each other for thier good and bad times but for the ones they care, they have no one. He believes he has lived majority of his life for himself and family and it is now time to dedicate it to the service of others. Lack of funds have often forced George to reconsider his decision to continue his service but he stills fights on. He says that the satisfaction he gets from helping the poor and underprivileged cannot be found elsewhere.

Good Samaritan's dreams is to set up destitute home in every district of the state. He also aims to create awareness and teach others how to reach out to the needy and how to rescue them and enrol them at shelter homes. Good Samaritan continuously seeks funds which will help them to shelter and care for about 1,500 people.

The Impact:

George and his two volunteers respond to any call at any time about any elderly, abandoned, injured, sick or destitute individuals. They have been tirelessly working to fight the apathy that society and the government show and who consider the elderly as useless and a burden. Till date, around 288 people have been rescued so far from the streets of Hyderabad and taken to a new home at Good Samaritans. Around 116 people have left the Good Samaritans home after they were able to connect them with their family. Around 135 residents have passed away and last rites were performed by Good Samaritans as per their customs/religion. There are many stories of pain and despair at Good Samaritans but here is where they find love and hope for a better future. In the words of George, all that Good Samaritan is doing is to provide a shelter, a home where elderly are treated with dignity, a mattress to sleep and die in peace. Perhaps, the society should also question, is it too much to ask for?

Website: www.goodsamaritansindia.in

India is a huge country with a population of 1.3 billion people. Unfortunately, the country has a large number of orphans. The challenges of living a life of an orphan cannot be even fathomed by us. Survival, food, shelter, lack of education, exploitation, bonded labour, etc., are the many things that come to our mind thinking of such children. Fortunately, some of them found a loving, caring mother. This is the story of Sindhutai Sapkalhas, mother to over 1,200 orphan children, the real mother India!

Early Life:

The early life of Sindhutai was no less challenging than what it may have been for any other orphaned child, even though she had a family. Born on 14^th November, 1948 in a family facing abject poverty in Wardha, Maharashtra, her father was a cowherd and she was an unwanted child to her mother, often called 'chindhi' (torn piece of cloth) in her childhood. Her father was keen on educating her against the wishes of her mother. She used to go to school under the pretext of cattle grazing. Such was the poverty that she could not even afford a writing slate and used a leaf instead. After her 4^th standard, at the small age of 10, she was married of to a 30 year old shepherd. Even before she could turn 20, she had given birth to 3 sons.

Turning point:

Fate however had other plans for her. A local strongman was exploiting villagers by collecting dried cow-dung and selling it in collusion with the forest department, without paying anything to the villagers. She took up this fight which ultimately led the collector himself visiting the village and passing an order favouring her. The local strongman was displeased and convinced her husband to abandon her, which he did. She was over nine months pregnant when she was forced out of her house and thrown to a cowshed where she fell unconscious. That night she gave birth to a baby girl in the cowshed. After mustering some strength and courage, she walked a few kilometers with her just-born infant baby in her arms to reach her mother's place, only to be disappointed. She later took shelter in a crematorium that night.

The realisation:

Life was inflicting misery upon Sindhutai in ways she had never imagined. Having fought thoughts of committing suicide, she started begging on railway platforms for food. She traveled in trains singing and begging for alms. In order to protect her modesty, Sindhutai would often spend her nights at cemeteries. She would often be mistaken as a ghost in the night and people would run away. Their fear kept her safe at night.

One night at the railway station, she heard a beggar weeping. He was sick and dying and wanted someone to put some water in his mouth. Sindhutai not only offered him water but also gave him her food. Fortunately the man did not die. This led Sindhutai to realise that small efforts could also help save lives. At the railway station, she came across many abandoned children and heard their sad stories. Having gone through the horrid experience of neglect and abandonment herself from both her families, she could imagine how tough it would have been for those poor children. She decided to adopt them and accept them as her own and started begging more vigorously to feed them too. Her first son was a 16 year old orphaned boy whom she met at the station. She decided to become a mother to anyone who came to her as an orphan. Before she knew, she became a 'tai', mother to many children. Her family was growing and now there were many children. Such was her love for children that she donated her own biological child after three years to a trust in Pune, to eliminate any feeling of partiality between her own child and other adopted children. She feared that her adopted children would feel she loved her own child more than them.

Later Work:

It was only after years that Sindhutai's children could get a roof on their heads. 15 years later, few tribals whom she had helped, gave her a part of their land to live. She was now getting known to people who came across and helped her in small ways as they could. Soon she got to know that she had to register as an NGO to give receipts to people who would offer her financial aid. So she formed and registered her first NGO, Savitribai Phule Girls’ Hostel under the Foundation, Vanvasi Gopalkrushna Shikshan Evam Kreeda Prasarak Mandal in Chikaldhara in Amravati. Today Sindhutai and her children run 4 NGOs apart from a cow-shelter where she brings in abandoned cows to protect them from slaughter. Sindhutai has been traveling across the country and giving lectures and speeches.

In her last 42 years, Sindhutai adopted over 1,200 orphaned and abandoned children. Today she has a grand family of 282 sons-in-law, 49 daughters-in-law, and over a thousand grandchildren. She still travels from place to place to tell her story and at the end of it, spreads the loose end of her sari to ask for aid to feed and educate her children. Even today she continues to fight for the next meal. None of her orphanages received any grant from the government, largely due to apathy, neglect and lack of funds in the Women and Child Development (WCD) department.

Awards & Recognitions:

Many of the children whom she adopted are well-educated lawyers and doctors today, and some, including her biological daughter, are running their own independent orphanages. One child is even doing a PhD. on Sindhutai's life. Sindhutai has over the years, won numerous awards and recognitions.

She is a recipient of over 273 awards but is yet to receive any government grant. Among the prominent ones are the Ahilyabai Holkar Award, given by the Government of Maharashtra (2010), Real Heroes Awards by CNN-IBN and Reliance Foundation (2012), Mother Teresa Awards for Social Justice (2013), The National Award for Iconic Mother (first recipient, 2013), Ahmadiyya Muslim Peace Prize (2014) and Social worker of the year from Wockhardt foundation (2016). All the money she has ever received has been used to construct homes for her children. A Marathi-language film Mee Sindhutai Sapkal released in 2010, is a biopic inspired by the true story of Sindhutai Sapkal. The film was selected for its world premiere at the 54th London Film Festival and has even won 4 national awards. Sapkal has also been felicitated by three Presidents of India.

Reunion:

Few years back Sindhutai was reunited with her family and was honoured with a felicitation ceremony, her husband had wept throughout that day. Sidhutai told her husband that he was the reason for her present stature. And since he was then an orphan, he was welcome to her orphanage, not as her husband but as a child, since it was a home for her children. She now introduces him as his oldest child.

Inspiration:

Sindhutai's life is an eye opener for all of us. Her indomitable spirit, extra-ordinary courage, intelligence and above all, the love and dedication for her children makes her a real hero. There are many things that inspire us from her story, it teaches us that how compassion can not only help save but also nurture life.

MAKING BHARAT SWACH SINCE FOUR DECADES:

MEET MR. BINDESHWAR PATHAK OF SULABH SAUCHALAYA

Often small things around us get unnoticed and we fail to realise the true story behind them. Many of us would have come across Sulabh Shauchalayas but did you ever came across as an social revolution which uplifted millions of scavengers across India? An unlikely source of this revolution is not any government but rather a brahmin who aspired to be a teacher. Read the amazing life story of Mr. Bindeshwar Pathak.

Early Life:

Bindeshwar Pathak was born on April 2, 1943 to a very traditional, upper-class Brahmin family in Bihar. As expected, he received a traditional brahmin upbringing as per his family social stature. From childhood, Pathak was exposed to the discrimination against the lower casts. As a child he noticed how his house was cleaned by sprinkling of water when a adivasi – so called 'untouchable' used to visit his house. Curiously a young Pathak touched this lady once which ultimately led him to eat cow dung and dring cow urine and then bathe in the holy river ganga to get pure again. This was his first brush with untouchability and over the years he encountered many more cases of discrimination.

His childhood though was not entirely a smooth affair. At age 12, his foot slipped from a 30-feet high mango tree which left his left arm with multiple fractures. He barely missed having an amputation on the hand. Then in age 13, his family

fell into some severe financial crisis after his uncle, the head of the joint family, was murdered. Pathak persevered with his studies during the childhood years and had ambitions of becoming a professor one day. However, we just missed on his dream after he failed to secure first class in his graduation in Sociology in 1964 just by few marks.

After missing out on his dreams, Pathak had to take up a job as a school teacher earning a meagre salary. Over the next few years, Pathak switched his occupation quite a few times and tried his hands at everything to make his ends meet but was unable to settle successfully in any of his endeavours. His fortunes failed to look up even after his marriage in 1965 at age 22. Pathak even had to sell his wife's jewellery to sustain his life. At age 25 he worked as a street salesman trying to sell his grandfather's home cure ayurveda mixture, with 10 kg load of bottles slung on both shoulders. After months of hardwork, Pathak thought it to be 'lacking in respect' and had to abandone this too.

The New Beggining:

Just as life was looking uncertain and dark, Pathak he bagged a temporary writer's assignment with the Mahatma Gandhi Centenary Celebration Committee (MGCCC) in Patna in late 1960s. It was at this place that Pathak, who had first hand experience the plight and discrimination of the lower castes, joined the Bhangi-Mukti (scavengers’ liberation) Cell of the (MGCCC). After this, he was further exposed to and gained deeper understanding of the plight and indignity faced by millions of manual scavengers of India. A decisive shift in his life came in 1967 when a social worker convinced him to fulfil Gandhi's social concerns and look for ways towards liberation of the scavenger castes.

Pathak took up the mission in all sincerity and proceeded to live in in a colony of scavengers in Bihar for over three months. This was unthinkable for a Brahmin in Bihar in the sixties to do something remotely like this. However, Pathak was convinced that he needed to make a change by understanding their lives. During this period Pathak witnessed two events which left a lasting impression in his mind. First, when he saw a new-wed bride crying when her in-laws forced her to clean their toilets. Second, when he saw a young boy succumbing to his injuries after being hit by a wild bull. He died not because of his injuries but because nobody came forward to take him to hospital as he belonged to a lower caste community. By the time Pathak reached, the boy was already dead. Those three months changed Pathak's life.

The Sulabh Revolution:

After his experiences, Pathak was determined to search for a solution provide a dignified life and earning to the scavengers. For this, he had to end the practice of humans disposing humans' waste but this had to be done in a manner that could be profitable and provided livelyhood. Pathak finally decided to build maintenance-free toilets and established the Sulabh International Social Service Organization in 1970. The western-style flush toilet and centralised water-borne sewage system was not affordable for many at that time. So Pathak kept working on his toilet model and soon developed the technology of an affordable, two-pit pour-flush toilet. The system avoided the need to a septic tank or seware systems and didn't require cleaning of human excreta and turned out solid, odourless, pathogen-free manure.

For a couple of years, Pathak was constrained by resources to build toilets. However, idea caught up in 1973 when a municipal officer who sanctioned him Rs 500 to build two public toilets. After this, Pathak went on to construct more such toilets. In 1974, Pathak introduced the pay-and-use system for maintaining the community toilets and baths. This proved to be a catalyst and an instant hit with the scavenging community who could now earn a decent living. Soon enough, several other toilets were built all over Bihar. From 1978 onwards, Sulabh toilets spread to Bengal, Orissa, UP and then to all across the country.

The simple idea of building Sulabh Sauchalaya was not only solving the problem of sanitation and hygiene but was also helping liberate the scavenger community. The success of his model created also helped create a huge behavioural change when people started paying for the use of public toilets. It also brought in a cultural shift when people started to socially accept people for the scavenging community.

All these years, Pathak's efforts continued. In 1980 he earned his master's degree and in 1985, his PhD from the University of Patna with his thesis on the subject. In 1985, he started a training and rehabilitation program for the wards of scavengers in different skills & trades like typing, motor driving, mechanics, masonry work, carpentry, etc. He continued the fight to improve the social status of the scavenging community by organising talks and seminars to create social awareness against unfounded beliefs and prejudices. In 2001, Sulabh expanded its activities to include women empowerment and started a country-wide program for involvement of women in sanitation, health and hygiene. In July 2011, 200 women of the community that was once considered untouchable accompanied Pathak to offer prayers at Kashi Vishwanath Temple (KVT). There, they also shared food with Brahmins and other upper caste people.

Sulabh International Impact:

Sulabh International is perhaps the largest nonprofit organization in India today. From sanction of Rs.500 for two toilets, today there are 1.3 million such toilets in over 640 cities/towns across India alone which have resulted in upliftment of over a million scavengers. The impact and benefit to environment can only be imaged by the fact that in just one year Sulabh two pit system saves over 49,056 million litres of water!

The organization today promotes hygienic and sustainable sanitation and is committed towards the causes of human rights, non-conventional sources of energy, waste management and social reforms through education. Sulabh International has now perfected an excreta-based biogas plant that generates biogas to be used for heating, cooking and electricity. In 2002, Sulabh came with a new and convenient technology - Sulabh Effluent Treatment (SET), to make biogas plant effluents free from color, odor and pathogen and which makes effluents safe and suitable for agriculture, aquaculture or safe discharge into any water body.

Pathak, however, has remained modest and even refused to patent his two-pit toilet. The technology has now been adopted in cities across Africa, Asia and even central America to construct public-toilet complexes for public use. It is perhaps the biggest mass sanitation effort in the world. The UNDP even has a detailed report on the workings and success of the programme. The model is now being promoted across even developed countries who are now seeing rationale in having such independent, self sustaining, eco-friendly toilet model.

Awards & Recognitions:

Bindeshwar Pathak is a Padma Bhushan (1991) recipient from the Government of India. He also received the Energy Globe Award, the Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award for Environment (2003), Stockholm Water Prize (2009) and the Legend of Planet award from the French senate in Paris (2013). In April 2016, the Mayor of New York City, declared 14 April 2016 as Bindeshwar Pathak Day. Apart from these awards, Pathak has also received numerous other prominent awards and recognitions, a few of them are...

• Humanitarian Award of the New York Global Leaders Dialogue, 2016

• Public Health Champions Awards by World Health Organisation (WHO), 2016

• The 'NGO Leadership and Excellence Award' by the World CSR Congress, 2014

• Lifetime Achievement Award by V World Aqua Congress, 2011

• Bihar Ratna Award, 2010

• Sanitation Visionary Award by World Toilet Organisation, 2009

• Global 500 Roll of Honour Award by UNEP, Beirut (Lebanon), 2003

• Dubai International Award for ‘Best Practices for Improving the Living Environment’ by UNCHS, 2000

• Limca Book of Records’ ‘Man of the Year Award’, 1995

Conclusion:

Pathak, who is staunch believer of Gandhian views and of Ambedkar as well, today welcomes the change in cultural change in society were largely, no one is called and treated as an untouchable. Though there are a few who see the 27c Crore Sulabh as a social enterprise, Pathak insists that he is a social scientist. Pathak's journey inspires many to look at social enterprise in a different light and also as a proof that technology, innovation and social impact can go hand in hand.

India is an incredible country. Because many unsung hereos from different parts of the country make it one. One such unknown name and face, is of a person, known as the “Forest Man” of India. In this month's story, we have brought to you some inspiration from the forests of Assam.

The Life Changing Event:

It was in 1979 when a 16 year boy – Jadav Molai Payeng, belonging to the Mishing tribe, had just completed his class X exams in Jorhat. It was a scorching summer day in April when Jadav, was returning to his birthplace at Aruna spori, a discreet island on the mighty Brahmaputra river. On reaching, he encountered a sight that shocked him. There were hundreds of dead, curled up snakes lying on the deserted sandbar. Apparently, the snakes had been washed up to the sandbar after floods and died without any tree cover. It was a heartbreaking moment for the young boy who loved and lived amongst nature.

A distressed Jadav approached a nearby tribal village and expressed his sorrow. It was native wisdom that more trees will attract more birds and animals, which will provide more food, especially eggs, and shelter to snakes. The villagers offered the boy 50 seeds and 25 bamboo plants to pursue his endeavour. Looking back, Jadav says this was a life changing event, the impact of which on his life, was unknown to him back then. The young 16 year boy set out all alone in 1978 summer to plant those first 25 bamboo samplings on that island covered only with sand and silt. And the rest is history.

Early life:

The plight of a poor tribal forest family can be very well imagined. Jadav was third among the 13 kids of his parents, including 7 girls. His family sold cow's milk and making ends meet was very tough with such a large family. In 1965 severe floods struck their village, situated along the banks of River Brahmaputra, when the entire village was forced to migrate to the other side of the river, 12 kms away from their home and they were left without any means. Five year old Jadav was left in care of a government employee in Jorhat, Assam who looked after his basic needs and schooling. After class X, young Jadav was forced to give up studies and return to his village to take care of the livestock left by his deceased parents.

The Molai Forest.

After the deeply moving incident of dead snakes, Jadav developed a strong desire to plant more trees. An opportunity came in form of a tree plantation scheme on 200 hectares of forest division of Golaghat district, not too far away from Jorhat, in the same year. Jadav was one of the labourers in the scheme, which was later abandoned after 5 years in 1983. Even after the end of the project, Jadav chose to stay back and continued working alone in the plantation after all labourers had left. He not only looked after the plants, but continued to plant more trees on his own, in an effort to transform the area into a forest.

From the barren sands, the desire to grow trees had now become a passion, an obsession for Jadav which knew no limits. Jadav was an in person witness to how the number of migratory birds and snakes were falling in the forests and wetlands in his hometown. He knew he had to do something. For the next 3 decades, Jadav kept visiting this land every day and kept planting and caring for trees. Majority of the plantation was done in fertile period during monsoons and the rest of the year, especially summers, he took special care, like watering small trees and plants. Jadav also used this time to carefully collect and nurture different samplings to be planted over the next year. The forest was single-handedly attended by Payeng for 30 years without any government or NGO or local body support. Jadav though laments the indifference of the local forest officials in the past who neither helped him grow the forest nor paid any attention to endangered animals regularly visiting and seeking shelter in the forest.

It was only by sheer will, persistence and determination, that Jadav's efforts saw the abandoned plantation getting converted into a forest, which now boasts of a huge area of 550 hectares or 1360 acres. Today the forest has come to be known as the “Molai Forest”, named after Jadav Molai Payeng. The forest has several thousand trees exhibiting an amazing diversity and includes a wide variety of fruit bearing, medicinal and shelter providing trees and plants. This attractive and one of a kind forest in the region is home to a number of Bengal tigers, Indian rhinoceros', deer, boars, elephants, apes, monkeys, rabbits and several varieties of birds, including a large number of endangered vultures and of course many species of snakes.

Surprisingly, the forest was unknown to authorities until the year 2008, when one day the forest officials went in search of a troop of 115 elephants who had retreated into this forest after damaging property in a nearby village. The officials were amazed to see such a vast, rich, diverse and fertile forest, and since then have been regularly visiting it. Jadav has also been instrumental in helping forest officials in the fight against poaching. However, living so close to the forest has its cons and Jadav, over the past 3 decades, has sacrificed around 200 of his cows, buffaloes and pigs to the tigers of the forest. “They (tigers) do not know farming, you see”, he says jokingly.

Personal Life:

At the age of 39, Jadav married 25 year old Binita, on continuous insistence of his village elders. They now have three school going children. Jadav had to move with his family to Eklong Mising Gaon, Kokilamukh, Jorhat, in 2011 for his kids' schooling, away from his forest home and livestock. Now his usual day begins at 3 AM, then cycling an hour to reach the river. After 5 kms of paddling in the river, again cycling for 30 minutes to reach his home. He then tends to his livestock and fields, dispatches milk for sale, has breakfast and then walks into his beloved forest to spend the rest of the day. Late afternoon, the entire commuting cycle repeats itself to take Jadav back to his family in Jorhat.

Awards & Recognitions:

Jadav might have remained behind shadows, but his goodness could not be veiled for too long. It was his friend – Jitu Kalita, a local wildlife photographer, who published an article on his life in the year 2010. In 2012, the Jawaharlal Nehru University invited Jadav on Earth Day and honoured him with the title of the ‘Forest Man of India’ in a public function in recognition of his remarkable solo undertaking. Later in 2012, he was also felicitated by the late President APJ Abdul Kalam who also gave him a cash award. The same year, Jadav was amongst 900 experts who gathered at the seventh global conference of the International Forum for Sustainable Development at Evian in France. In 2013, he was honoured at the Indian Institute of Forest Management. Sanctuary Asia bestowed on him the Wildlife Service Award. And his highest honour came in the form of Padma Shri.

Jadav's life has also been the subject of documentaries in recent years, like 'The Molie Forest' and 'Foresting Life'. One such documentary named 'Forest Man' was even awarded as the Best Documentary prize at the Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. He is also the subject of an illustrated children's book.

The Man:

Jadav strongly recommends making Environmental Sciences a mandatory subject for children and believes that every school child must be given the responsibility to grow at least two trees. He believes that every person has the responsibility to do something good for the planet. He has expectedly spent all his cash awards and money on a new forest – a 5,000 acre area where he has also hired 4 labourers. In future, he wants to undertake more such initiatives in different areas of India, like Rajasthan where he wishes to work on some dammed areas.

Be it anywhere, one thing is for sure; Jadav will always be found creating and caring a forest in some part of India. Every tomorrow will be another day to sow seeds in pursuit of building a forest for generations to come. Today the country needs more such Jadavs who are trying to make the Earth a better place to live for one and all.