Paradip: What started as a hobby, turned into a passion for engineer turned green crusader Amaresh Naresh Samant of Biswali village near here in Jagatsinghpur district. His voluntary outfit was adjudged as the best voluntary organisation by the Centre this year.
The Union youth and sports ministry took note of his work and declared his Baba Balunkeshwar Gramya Bikash Parishad as the best voluntary outfit in the state. His work on the protection of environment was highly appreciated with his outfit winning 28 awards since 2014. Among those are nine awards by the state government and Centre while the rest came from various other outfits.
Some of these awards included outstanding youth club award in 2017, Prakruti Bandhu in 2014, Prakruti Mitra in 2015, Rotary Governor appreciation award, Port Trust appreciation award among others.
His organization functions from Biswali village about 8-km from Paradip adjoining National Highway 5(A). He is the architect of the Parishad which was born out of his zeal to work for environmental protection.
His works speak volumes about his dedication to environment protection and has become an example for others to emulate. Amaresh first started planting trees with the help of his friends by spending from pocket. He has created 12 rural forests in the area and handed them over to the respective villages.
He formed a youth outfit in 2010 which was registered in 2014. He spent almost all his earnings on creating forests. With the help of his friends, he identified government land earmarked for rural forests and planted trees to form mini forests by fencing it from all sides.
Later, ponds were dug up inside the forests that remained filled throughout the year with rainwater. This solved the water problem as the outfit members started watering the plants from these ponds.
The areas soon turned into mini forests and became a habitat for birds. Enthused by the development, his associates created nests on trees and kept small pots to provide water for birds.
The number of saplings that he planted has grown to 20,000 big trees even as his outfit distributed over 2 lakh saplings. His forest can be seen in every village of Biswali, Kothi and Bhutmundai panchayats.
His outfit has dug over 50 ponds for water conservation, given financial aid to meritorious students for higher studies, creating artificial wetlands and financial assistance for the marriage of poor girls. When contacted, Amaresh said, his work is aimed at restoring environmental equilibrium which is threatened by rising temperature in the port city.
PNN
