Khandapada: Popular as ‘Gachha Sir’ in the locality, Antaryami Sahu of Krushneswar Patana village of Kantilo panchayat under Khandapada block in Nayagarh district has become a household name.
However, it has come to the fore that former MLA of Khandapada, Siddharth Sekhar Singh, has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he be honoured with the ‘Padma Shri’ award.
Besides ex-MLA Singh nominating Sahu for ‘Padma Shri’ award, acknowledging his dedication towards preserving green cover in the region, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan also recently heaped praises on him in their respective tweets.
Wistfully remembering his childhood days, ‘Gachha Sir’ says he has been spreading the message ‘Banchaile Banchiba’ (we will live if we keep them alive) even when he was just a child.
He started his career as a primary school teacher. Now he is retired. During his service period, he would dedicate his time after school hours to plant saplings and create awareness about the importance of trees among the people.
As of now he lives in his village. If one goes around his village, they can see what he has done to preserve greenery. There are palm and date palm trees along the side of Malabandh near his village.
He says he has planted those trees to help increase the population of weaverbirds. In addition, there are fruit-bearing and umbrageous trees in and around the village.
He says it gives him immense pleasure when he sees the trees planted by him bear fruits or provide shade to passers-by. When asked how many trees he has planted so far, ‘Over 30,000 trees,” was his prompt reply.
He says his day starts with activities aimed to save the environment and help increase the population of birds and animals that are on the verge of extinction. He has founded an organization ‘Chetana’ and has been organising programmes under its banner involving youths and children.
In these programmes, he makes people aware about the reasons why many birds and animals are no longer sighted as frequently as they used to be few years ago and about how they can be saved for the next generation.
Expressing his concern about sparrows being sighted rarely even in rural areas, he says he has recently been emphasising on how these birds can be saved.
According to him, the human race will stay alive till there are trees, animals, birds and insects on the Earth.
“We can never survive without them. Even dreaming a world sans tress, birds and animals is impossible. So all of us should try our best to keep them alive,” he maintained.
PNN
