Saalumarada Thimmakka- Environmentalist

She has been honoured with the National Citizen’s Award of India for her work and an environmental organisation based in California, USA called ‘Thimmakka’s Resources for Environmental Education’ is named after her.

She used her own meager resources to plant these trees. Along with her husband, they used to carry four pails of water for 4 kms to water the saplings. They also protected them from grazing cattle by fencing them with thorny shrubs. The saplings were planted mostly during monsoon season so that sufficient rain water would be available for them to grow. By the onset of the next monsoons, the saplings had invariably taken root. 284 trees were planted in total and their asset value has been assessed at around 1.5 million rupees.

The management of these trees have now been taken over by the Government of Karnataka.