Trees are his evergreen' friends Sumitra

DHENKANAL: Call him a nature lover or farmer, but 68-year-old Dhruba Charan Mohanty, feels trees are evergreen friends. This retired employee of the home department has orchards which brim over with mangoes, cashews, coconuts, jack fruits, papayas, lemons, pineapples, bananas and medicinal plants, including cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper and bay leaf.
His sprawling orchard spreading over 16 acres near Borapada, on the outskirts of Dhenkanal, has about 700 mango trees, 150 coconut trees, 300 lemon trees, 1100 cashew trees, 1,000 banana plants and several varieties of scented blooms. The flowers are spread over 10 acres. In another plot of 6 acres, he has sowed paddy and even cultivated teak. Today, after 32 years of toiling, he is proud of his sylvan success.
At a time of global warming and climate change, it's commendable that here's a man from a nondescript village in Paradip called Potanai who is carrying out a green crusade in his own humble way. "I always wanted to have an orchard. Today, I have not one but many. When I was just eight, I started growing coconut seedlings," said the farmer, whose father Rama Chandra Mohanty was a betel vine grower. He added, "My father would always said if we nourish trees, they take care of us."
Mohanty came to Dhenkanal in 1974 when he was transferred from Sambalpur. "I liked the place and looked for an area for farming. I bought five acre area in Borapada and started banana and papaya farming in 1979. It was lucrative. I took VRS five years before retirement in 1999 and took up farming for over 12 hours a day. I started buying more land thereafter and got into farming cash crops," he recalled.
The deputy director of agriculture, Ananda Chandra Baral, was so impressed with his green labour that he extended full support to him. "From the electricity department to horticulture, everyone cooperated with me. In the 80s, a number of agricultural scientists from Delhi visited my farm," said the farmer.
Even at this age, he spends over eight hours farming every day. But because of his failing health, he now employs a couple of people from the neighbourhood. He earns about Rs 4 lakh every year from the plantations. A number of food processing units and SHGs are keen to buy his farm produce. "I have been buying tons of lemons from him for making pickles and squash," said Pravati Jena, an SHG member.
There's more, he's raised all his children with this "green" money and even got them married. He has two sons and two daughters. He says with a smile that they are all "well settled", thanks to his farming business.
Mohanty has a last wish: that he dies amid his green friends. He has built a house inside one of his orchards, away from the hustle bustle of village life, where he is completely at peace with himself.