A Green Battle to Heal Wastelands

Few centuries ago, Madurai's architecture had an almost dreamlike synchrony with nature. The gopurams of the Meenakshi Amman Temple rose like mountains, their sculpted gods and demons etched onto the walls like creepers on the bark of a mangrove tree. Never an intrusion into nature but an extension of it.

- SARAVANAN MP @ Madurai

As the skylines of Tamil Nadu's cities get sprawled with brutalist grey buildings, one tends to recollect 'Unreal City' of Eliot's Waste Land — fog-bound, monotonous, spiritually exhausted — creeping into a once spirited land.

In rural Madurai, a 48-year-old man is proving that cities can develop not by destroying nature, but by preserving and even nurturing it. For the past 15 years, Mu Ra Bharathithasan, an environmentalist and social worker, has organised several tree sapling initiatives and planted over 15 herbal gardens in government schools in rural segments in the district.

Narrating his journey, he said, "I was born and brought up in Idayarpatti, Madurai. I aspired to become a Tamil lecturer, but financial difficulties haunted my family." As a result, for a brief time, he had discontinued schooling and engaged in construction work.

"After carrying out odd jobs, I took relief in helping my father, a farmer, as we owned a large garden in our house premises. The first time I realised my attachment to nature was in 1999. Road extension activities were carried out in Othakadai, and several trees were felled. Five years later, several large trees were cut down along Thiruvathavur and Melur roads. I decided that it was time for a change and began to read more on trees and climate change."