People’s Padma for Vriksha Mata Tulsi Gowda

 

People’s Padma for Vriksha Mata Tulsi Gowda 

Tulsi Ajji (Ajji means grandma ib Kannada) is from Halakki tribe in Ankola Taluka of Karnataka 

She is called mother of forest for growing forest across 4 taluks and 5 tiger reserves over a period of 50 years she worked a daily wager in Karnataka Forest dept. She has planted 100,000 trees over her lifetime .

When forest dept wanted to start afforestation program they couldn’t get the trees grow as they were dying off . More than 90 percent of native Indian trees have regeneration problems despite much research being conducted on them. Gowda could identify a mother tree of any species anywhere in the forest.

Regeneration is best done with the seeds from the mother tree. For example, she knew the timing of its flowering, germination and the best time to collect the seeds from the mother tree of a plant, like say, Hopea parviflora (Bogi Mara in Kannada).” Her understanding of the language of the forest and the trees and the techniques like germination, flowering, etc is fascinating.

Then a forest officer identified Tulsi Gowda’s knowledge of forest can help in the growth of forest 

She is an illiterate and no one Knows how she learned it and does it . Some say her tribe has got that know how and some say she is forest goddess 

She can identify more than 300 medicinal plants. The Halakki tribe is known for their knowledge of medicinal plants which they mostly utilise to prevent diseases than for cure. These are knowledge and tradition passed down through generations and Tulasi is a holder of it. Thus with this knowledge she helped afforestation Efforts and help a forest grow. 

These people are real climate change warriors.

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