An IRS officer Rohit Mehra from Punjab created a man-made forest at Dhianpur village of Gurdaspur in Punjab. He was popularly known as ‘Green Man of India’.
Rohit Mehra has successfully created 75 human-made forests. Forests have been spread all over the country which covers an area from 2,000 square feet to 66,000 square feet. It is the biggest man made
forest in North India.
Types of trees planted in the forest
There are total 108 varieties of trees grown in the forest. There are vedic van, panchwati, triweni, harishankari, rishi van, rashi van, navgrah van etc i.e. all the ancient types of tress are planted in the forest.
IRS officer Rohit Mehra’s aim behind creating this man made forests is to promote environment. Rohit Mehra says, “Our main purpose is to restore jungles in the country, I had always been passionate about gardening”.
History of IRS officer Rohit Mehra
IRS officer Rohit Mehra, the “green man of India” whose mission of sustainability has inspired millions in India, actually failed his Grade 12 exams. However, he persisted and went on not only to clear his board exams but to also pass the civil services in 2004 with flying colours.
After many years of working as a civil servant, Rohit decided to dedicate a part of his life working towards sustainability and the environment.
In his childhood, Rohit says his grandfather encouraged him to grow plants, but he did not take up the activity with much interest. In 2016, Rohit’s son told him that he had a day off from school because of “pollution”. They were living in Ludhiana, which had a very high AQI at the time. He was shocked to learn that as a parent, he couldn’t even ensure clean air for his child. “I knew this needed fixing immediately and started working on it.”
Started working on five different projects to make greenery place
Rohit with the help of his wife Geetanjali and his children, started working on five different projects to develop cities including Ludhiana, Amritsar, Baroda, Delhi, Kolkata, among others, and make them greener places to live in.
In just 4.5 years, Rohit has created vertical gardens with plastic bottles, built lush green forests in dump yards, and rightly earned his name as the ‘Green Man of India’. Whenever he visits a place, he manages to convert people to contribute towards his green mission and by making them his “green friends”, thereby forming a circle of giving and receiving.
