FROM PERSONAL LOSS TO GREEN LEGACY

PLANT trees, not saplings"—that is the motto Assam’s 59-year-old Uttam Kumar Das lives by. In the process, the railway employee has achieved a rare feat: not a single tree he planted has died in the last one decade.

- Prasanta Mazumdar reports

Plant A Tree and make the World Pollution Free

There is growing awareness about planting trees as the planet heats up, but most plantation drives end in disappointment. In Assam, official data shows that saplings planted under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund in 2023-24 had a survival rate of about 83.75%. Along national highways in 2024-25, survival was just above 82%. In contrast, Das has achieved near-total success, not by joining campaigns but by changing the way he plants.

His journey began with personal loss. In 2008, his five-year-old son was diagnosed with a terminal illness. He took him to Bengaluru for treatment. However, chances of recovery dwindled, and he died last year at 21.

"He was my only child, a brilliant boy who always did well in school. The disease was detected in Class 5. I took him to Bengaluru with hope. But when doctors said nothing more was possible, I returned broken. His illness kept him confined to bed, and he could no longer study," Das recalls.