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Journalism of Courage
Visitors to Ganduwa,a village in Sangrur district of Punjab,would have seen a frail man on his bicycle,his left hand clutching a few saplings. He is Gurdev Singh a.k.a. Triveniwala Baba or planter of triveni trees. Triveni is a cluster of three treespeepal,bohar and neemthat holds a special status in Punjab and also finds a mention in holy scriptures like the Guru Granth Sahib.
So almost every day for the last 25 years,Singh has been setting off to scour for triveni saplings that grow in the creeks of walls or in wellshe says he has never had to purchase a single sapling. He then plants them in Ganduwa and in neighbouring villages and towns,near schools,dharamshalas or bus stands.
He proudly displays the trees he nurtured and says his greatest joy is to see people sit under them. When I began planting trees,people used to call me mad and pick fights with me. They said I was encroaching on their space. I would tell them that once the trees grow,they would of great use to them. I would talk to them about how these trees purify our air,provide us shade and so on. No one believed me then,but look at our village now. It is one of the coolest and greenest in this area.
Singh has inspired some of the younger men in the village to plant trees. While Singh does not remember how many trivenis he has planted,people say he has planted around 1,200 trivenis.
Amandeep Singh,a class XI student in the village,says,Its not easy to grow anything here because of the poor quality of the soil. But Baba taught us the importance of trees. Now our village is probably the greenest in this area,but there are people who want to cut down trees to build houses.
