This retired official has transformed swathes of dry lands into forests  Premium

Mukund Rao, a retired Assistant Commissioner at the Commercial Tax Department, is determined to bring back at least parts of forests around Bengaluru and in various other districts in Karnataka.

After Rajasthan, Karnataka has the second largest expanse of dry land in India, and its capital city Bengaluru is a plateau surrounded by dry regions. These areas are an undulated topography covered with granite, rocky hills and gravelly soil. With this topography, districts around Bengaluru have not just been dry for several decades, but there has been a huge fall in water levels, vegetation and wildlife too.

Seventy-year-old Mukund Rao, a retired Assistant Commissioner at the Commercial Tax Department, is determined to bring back at least parts of forests around Bengaluru and in various other districts in Karnataka.

Called “Forest Man of Karnataka” by friends and colleagues, Mr. Rao started his afforestation efforts at his hometown in Channapatna, Ramanagara district, in 2006 along with his wife Latha Rao.

The Chikkamannu Gudde which was neglected by the government of Karnataka for several decades, today has a Forest Department Office with staff and security. Many such places are turning into forests, thanks to the efforts of Mr. Rao who has been collecting seeds and planting them in various dry lands in Karnataka.

Sharing his journey of 18 years, Mr. Rao, who famously planted 3,750 saplings of Pongemia/Honge at South Bengaluru’s ISRO Layout in 1995, says that creating a forest was a childhood dream for him.

“My mother, who taught the importance of trees and protecting the environment, was my first teacher. I was very fond of the environment since childhood. The popular Kengal Anjaneya Swamy temple is just a few kilometers away from the first forest I grew. Whenever I visited the temple, I would see this dry, barren hill called Chikkamannu Gudde located a few kilometers away and always wondered how it would look if it had trees and plants. Since then, it was my dream to grow a forest there. My journey towards achieving it started in 2006 through the project Basket to Barren Land,” he recalled. 

“Basket to Barren Land” conceptualised by him was implemented at a minimum-cost in this region by dibbling seeds and planting saplings. The project aimed at creating a forest in a barren land by collecting seeds from various parts of the states. The project focused on planting seeds that could also bear fruits, in order to increase wildlife in the area.