Imagine walking 5 km in the sweltering heat, carrying buckets of water and tending to 385 saplings planted by the side of a road, every single day for years. That is exactly what Aalada Marada Thimmakka, or Saalumarada Thimmakka as she is locally known, did.
Saalumarada, who is 110-years-old, was married to a young boy named Bikaalu Chikkaiah in Ramanagara district in Karnataka when she was about 12.
Thimmakka lived peacefully for some time and worked as a casual labourer in a nearby quarry. However, even after many years of marriage the couple remained childless. The local people began to taunt Thimmakka and she became very sorrowful.
She began to find solace in planting banyan tree saplings along a nearby road. Her husband Chikkaiah helped her and before long they had planted a whole stretch of road in Magadi taluk of rural Bengaluru. Additionally they planted 8,000 trees in the surrounding areas.
Fifty years on, the giant banyan trees provide shade and shelter to many creatures and are estimated to be worth Rs 150 crores. At a time when the rate of deforestation is estimated at 10 million hectares per year, Thimmakka’s actions are not just superhuman, but priceless for the environment.
Her work has been recognized by the Government of India and she was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2019. An organization based in Los Angelus, USA is named ‘Thimmakka’s Resources for Environmental Education’ after her and she was listed by the BBC as one of the most influential and inspirational women of the world, in 2016.
Picture Credit : Google
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