Retired government officer's bid to solve Odisha's climate woes, one tree at a time

BHUBANESWAR: The time to address climate change and global warming is now. We can't leave it to the next generation to right our wrongs, said Pradeep Kumar Rath, a 66-year-old retired government official who has been utilising his time planting trees with the help of volunteers from schools and women's self-help groups (SHG)s.
Since his retirement in March 2017 as the deputy chief labour commissioner, Rath wanted to give something back to society.But he did not know how.

"It was around this time that I met Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, the director general of Indian Meteorological Department, who is an alumnus of my university (Utkal University). He asked me if I was interested in helping the environment. He said that tree plantation is the panacea for climate disaster. Odisha is a state that is battered by many such disasters and he told me that plantation can be the solution," said Rath.
Initially, he approached his friends, who had also retired like him, for help. But that did not work out. "Nowadays, no one retires in their 60s. They have re-engagements," said Rath. He took up the responsibility on his own and approached the principal of St Xavier's School, Khandagiri. "He welcomed the concept of spreading awareness on tree plantation, water conservation and plastic ban," Rath said.
"I started conducting workshops and awareness programmes and posted updates on Facebook. This encouraged my friends to join in," he added. Eventually, the Odisha Environmental Society (OES) was launched. Rath went on to approach other educational institutions like the DAV School, Unit 8; DAV School, Kalinganagar; Central School, Kalinganagar; Aurobindo Integral School, Bhubaneswar and IRC Village School, Bhubaneswar.
"I told my friends that we cannot depend on external funding. We should contribute ourselves towards the cause," he said.
Rath and his friends visited schools across seven districts - Cuttack, Khurda, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Sambalpur, Angul and Balasore. "We spread awareness and conducted a small test as well. We also administered a pledge that the students would plant a sapling each whenever it's someone's birthday in the family and see to it that it is maintained. Whenever we conducted a tree plantation drive, we would get the teacher in charge of the eco club to assign a group to each plant - and they would be responsible for taking care of the sapling," he added.
The OES now runs the Paribesh Suraksha Abhijan (save environment drive) across the state. Till the pandemic, they had planted over 12,000 trees in around 71 schools and 25 colleges across the state. Rath and his team have also distributed 3,000 fruit bearing trees to 32 SHGs. "In collaboration with various associations, we had also planted approximately 20,000 trees during their mass plantation programmes," he added.
Things had started looking up when the pandemic struck and schools were shut. "We lost 90% of the trees that were planted in these two years," said Rath. But they have started reviving some of what they had lost. "We have contacted the principals and urged them to replace the trees or saplings that had withered. The sapling given to the SHGs had a better fate and 70% of them survived," he added.
The OES has also been conducting other initiatives on water conservation, plastic ban and rain water harvesting.
But Rath harps on the fact that issues like climate change and global warming can only be resolved if each individual takes up her or his social responsibility. "Eventually, this will become a different CSR (community social responsibility)," Rath said.