The city got greener by two saplings when ‘Greenman’ Narpat Singh Rajpurohit planted them during his Tirupati stay. The ace cyclist from Barmer (Rajasthan) is currently on what is touted as the world’s largest cycling tour for environmental protection.
His nationwide ‘Cycle Yatra’ started in Kashmir on 27 January 2019 and he has covered fifteen States and four Union Territories so far, while entering Andhra Pradesh via Palamaner.
He already covered 22,123km out of the targetted 31,000km, eyeing a place in the Guinness Book of Records.
Having covered Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the marathon trip will end at Jaipur after passing through Odisha, Bengal and Bihar.
The Yatra got delayed after he was stranded for several months in Hosur during the nationwide lockdown. Instead of passing through the national highways, Narpat has chosen a zig-zag route to touch the hinterland and to cover as many rural lives as possible.
His massive effort in planting 90,000 saplings earned him the prefix ‘Greenman’.
“During my cycle trip, I buy two saplings from the nearest nursery and plant them in a place that is assured of water supply, safety and upkeep”, he told The Hindu in an informal chat on Wednesday. He chooses school compounds, government buildings or reliable traders and vests them with the responsibility of maintaining the plants.
Going beyond plantation, he developed many water harvesting pits back home, saved hundreds of animals such as deer, Chinkara, peacock, rabbits, Nilgai, owl and jackal during his trip, dug up 21 water pools for the benefit of wild animals during summer and donated blood eighteen times.
Narpat made it a habit to donate saplings as dowry in family weddings in his home State, where he says the social malady is rampant. “I gave 251 saplings to my sister and 151 to my niece as dowry”, he says with a wide grin.
After planting two saplings of fruit-bearing trees in a private school compound in Tirupati, he left for Nellore with ‘fruitful’ memories. “I will come here again to see these grown up trees”, he told his ‘selfie-crazy’ admirers while bidding adieu to the temple city.
