Odisha teacher spends nearly eight lakhs on plantation drive

Without accepting a rupee as donation or grant from anyone, Gitanjali goes out planting saplings that she carries on her scooty and pays for labour charge for digging a pit. Whether inside the town or outside, wherever she finds open space, she plants a sapling.

Angul: A teacher by profession and environmentalist by passion, Odisha's Gitanjali Samal has single-handedly created a green cover in the state.

Since 2012, Gitanjali has planted thousands of trees for the last eight years in the districts of Kendrapara and Angul and is determined to continue her mission in the future.

Without accepting a rupee as donation or grant from anyone, Gitanjali goes out planting saplings that she carries on her scooty and pays for labour charge for digging a pit. Whether inside the town or outside, wherever she finds open space, she plants a sapling.

Being a conservationist, she not only plants but also takes care by putting a make-shift fence around it to save it from the damage by cattle and waters it regularly.

Gitanjali also distributes saplings to a number of schools free of cost.

A number of saplings planted by her have grown up and started flowering too.

Born in the village of Budhapanka under Banarpal block of Angul district Gitanjali has received higher education in botanical science. Her husband Kishor Kumar Rout is a Bank employee.

She is currently posted as the science teacher at Madhu Sagar Vidyapith in Kendrapara where also she has planted trees in the premises.

After the school was shut following restrictions imposed due to Corona, she returned to her native place at Angul where she has continued her mission to plant trees.

During the last six months, she has planted more than ten thousand saplings at various places of Angul and so far has spent more than eight lakh rupees from her own income on the plantation.

Every month she spends Rs 15,000 - 20,000 from her salary on this.

Recognising her efforts, many environmentalists and intellectuals have welcomed Gitanjali's plantation drive and expressed their gratitude for her missionary zeal.

The Forest and Environment department of the State Government is also spending crores of rupees for protection of forests and environment.