ONCE A SOLDIER : ALWAYS A SOLDIER
New Delhi, 25 Aug 2021: They Say “You can take a man out of the Army, but you can’t take the Army out of the Man”. The true spirit of this quote is embodied by Hav Ramesh Baurai (Retd) of 14 GARHWAL RIFLES, a resident of Paudi, Uttarakhand, who has been spearheading a campaign in support of environmental conservation since 2005 in his native place. After his retirement from Army, while settling down in his town, he realised the extent of damage caused by the ‘Chir’ trees in the local habitat. As per him, Chir trees are a huge fire hazard and also do not allow anything to grow underneath them and they are also one of the primary reasons of forest fires during summers. Ramesh points out that the heavy oil content in the chir trees make them susceptible to catching fire, through their tall height ensures that they are not damaged, but the neighbouring fauna gets completely destroyed.
Rameh is in constant touch with the district and state authorities of Uttarakhand to promote mixed forest and aims at reducing the percentage of Chir in the local forests as much as possible by replacing them with ‘Banjh Oak’. He is constantly on the move and educating the locals about the ill effects of this tree. He aims at spreading this awareness among the maximum people of the state. He is not associated with any NGO and nor does he have any financial support from the state, however that does not deter him. He uses part of his pension to fund his passion and has set a target for himself of planting at least 1000 saplings of ‘Banjh Oak’ every year and looking after them till they become self sufficient. He is hopeful that he will be able to see the day his land is completely free from the ill effects of the Chir tree within his lifetime.
