#FirstStoryPositive: Telangana man who planted over 1 crore trees to save mankind

Today, people are least bothered about nature, trees and the surroundings around them, no one take an initiative to save the nature. reduce plastic usage or plant trees but there is a person who planted 10 million tress, single-handedly. He is Daripalli Ramaiah, a man from Telangana, who is also known as Chetta Ramaiah.

He was born in Reddtpally village in Khammam district in 1937, in Telangana. He has only completed his academics till the 10^th. Since a child, he has been connected to nature. As a child, he often saw his mother gathering seeds of vegetable plants, and he always gave her a hand in that work.

He had taken an initiative to bring back the green covering of the Earth which was lost due to industrialization and urbanization. He calls seed the answer to the survival of mankind. He always took plants with himself on his bicycle and carried seeds in his pocket, which he used to scatter where there was no vegetation or trees. While doing so he used to hope that one day these trees will grow and save mankind, and the greenery will come again.

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At times, he was accompanied by his wife, Janamma, and sometimes he was helped by some school children, so that he may fulfill his mission. He was so sacrificing that he even sold his three acres of land to purchase saplings and seeds. He lacked education and didn’t have any qualifications so he read a huge number of books to fill his education gap, he read books related to trees and plantations to gain knowledge of where a plant can be grown at a particular place so that the seedlings couldn’t go waste.

Chetta Ramaiah’s wife told in one of the interviews about how he was mocked for saving the planet and that people called him mentally unstable. But this couldn’t break his determination and he continued planting saplings hoping for the return of greenery.

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For all his efforts he was awarded the third-highest civilian award, Padmashri by the former president, Pranab Mukherjee. The CM of Telangana has offered him support via its green initiatives. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate by the Academy of Universal Global Peace and also received special recognization from the Andhra Pradesh government.