Thanks to the initiative of Sri Sathya Sai Trust and Sri Jagannatha Service Foundation, not to mention the support of Odisha government, the state is all set to have at least a million more trees by 2025
Siddhartha Tripathy
Climate change has been making its ominous presence felt in India with increasing frequency and intensity. This global phenomenon’s impact has been glaringly evident in the form of incessant downpours, landslides and floodwaters across the northern part of the country over the past couple of weeks, with even parts of Delhi being submerged by spillover from the forebodingly swollen Yamuna River.
While climate change has become a buzzword in the media, featuring prominently in social and political discourses over the past many years, the global community does not seem to be taking enough action to contain or tackle the challenge – not at least when seen in light of the existential threat it poses to life on Earth.
So, the launch of Sri Sathya Sai Prema Tharu – a programme to plant 10 lakh trees in Odisha by the year 2025 – was like a refreshing ray of hope for the people of the eastern coastal state that has seen its fair share of natural calamities over the past two and a half decades.
An initiative of Sri Sathya Sai Trust (Odisha) and the Sri Jagannatha Service Foundation, the programme was inaugurated by none other than Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar this month.
The five-time Chief Minister, who played a pivotal role in making Odisha a globally acclaimed model state in disaster management, expressed happiness at the initiative and said on the occasion that trees play an important role in the preservation of human life. Being at the forefront of environmental conservation in India, he added, Odisha will further commit to protection of the environment and well-being of its people through this massive plantation drive.
Among the officials and dignitaries present in the event were Chief Secretary PK Jena, 5T Secretary Karthikeyan Pandian, Private Secretary to Chief Minster, R Vineel Krishna, Secretary to Chief Minister, Sri Lingaraj Otta, Environment and Forest Department secretary.
After Abhinav Krishna Jasthi, President of Sri Jagannatha Service Foundation, welcomed the gathering, he stated that Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust had undertaken the initiative in view of the urgent need to protect the environment from the perils of climate change and the threat of global warming.
Abhinav thanked the Government of Odisha for actively supporting the initiative by facilitating the supply of saplings and providing vacant lands for plantation in government schools, colleges and hospitals, among other places.
Revealing that the trees planted will be geo-tagged and uploaded on the website of Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organizations along with their photographs, Abhinav stated that each tree planted under the program would be considered an act of devotion to the Divine Creator and a sacred responsibility towards preserving Mother Nature.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Sathya Swaroop Patnaik, President of the Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organizations (Odisha), noted that the initiative was in line with the massive charitable activities that Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba had started across the world – at the behest of his mother, Smt. Eswaramma – during his lifetime in various fields such as education, health services, drinking water, skill development, rural development, and provision of food to the poor and needy.
“His universal message of ‘Love All, Serve All’ and ‘Help Ever, Hurt Never’ continues to inspire countless volunteers worldwide to collectively join together and engage in selfless service,” he stated.
The Sathya Sai Trust has indeed done some commendable work in Odisha over the years. It has set up 25 reverse osmosis plants in six districts of the state to provide pure drinking water to over 40,000 beneficiaries every day. Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organizations (Odisha) have adopted almost 450 villages to transform them into model villages. Back in 2008, when the coastal part of the state was hit hard by heavy floods, the Trust had built more than 1,000 homes for the affected.
Apart from running 18 schools in different parts of the state and a women’s college where more than 8,000 students receive holistic, value-centric education, the Trust also runs six skill development centres to empower rural youth through self-employment.
Under the Sri Sathya Sai Prema Tharu programme, one crore trees are expected to be planted across India by Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s birth centenary on November 23, 2025.
Krishna Kishore Jasthi, Principal Director of Income Tax (Investigation) and coordinator of the Bhubaneswar event, said no stone will be left unturned to exceed the target of planting and maintaining over a million trees in Odisha by 2025.
“Global warming and climate change are taking their toll as we can see. Across the world, the temperatures are rising, the pattern of rainfall is uneven and disrupted, and rising sea levels are causing coastal erosion at an increasing rate. In this situation, it is very essential for everyone to come together and play their part in protecting the environment,” he said in an exclusive interview to India First.
“One of the best ways to fight this challenge is to have more trees. Citizens should take it as their sacred responsibility to grow more trees as their contribution to environmental health, and they should desist from causing pollution or engaging in any activity that leads to degradation of the environment,” he added.
Hailing the volunteers of Satya Sai Seva Organizations in Odisha for their systematic and sincere efforts for good causes over the years, the senior IRS officer expressed confidence that their latest environmental drive in Odisha will see “each sapling planted with a sense of devotion and love for Mother Nature”.
“From the Chief Secretary to the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, many senior officials from the Government of Odisha have come forward whole-heartedly to help in this noble endeavour,” he revealed.
With Chief Minister Patnaik himself firmly committed to the environmental cause, it is hoped that the Sri Sathya Sai Prema Tharu programme will pave the way for many other similar initiatives to make Odisha a model state in environmental conservation as well.
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