Kumud Baruah cleans public places and plants saplings in Assam

 
“When I plant a tree, it provides shade, fruits and oxygen to many people. Earlier, I used to procure saplings from nurseries in Tezpur and Nagaon. But last year, I bought a one-katha [acre] plot of land on the outskirts of Biswanath Chariali and developed my own nursery”

A lawyer by profession, Kumud Baruah, 68, of Biswanath Chariali in Assam is an environmentalist at heart, who has planted over 5,000 saplings around his hometown. He discovered his vocation in 2012, when following a sudden inner urge he beautified the sub-divisional judicial court campus at Biswanath Chariali. Not only did he clean public toilets on the campus, which hadn’t been cleaned in months, but dusted old cabinets and roofs and planted several saplings. Seeing the court campus flourish, Baruah was motivated to carry on cleaning public places, removing garbage from roads and planting saplings in and around his hometown. As a conservationist, he prefers trees such as neem, Krishnachura, nahor, bokul, arjun tree and amlokhi that produce more oxygen and provide plenty of shade for people from the harsh sun.

—Dr Tapati Baruah Kashyap

Photo: Dr Tapati Baruah Kashyap
Featured in Harmony — Celebrate Age Magazine
September 2018