Daripalli Ramaiah Biography 
Daripalli Ramaiah, fondly called Vanajeevi Ramaiah and Chetla Ramaiah, is a social worker and environmentalist from Khammam district of Telangana, known for planting more than 1 crore trees in the same locality in the past 5 decades. For his invaluable contribution to extending tree cover, Government of India honoured him with Padma Sri most recently in 2017. He is also a recipient of Vanamitra Award, Seva Award and National Innovations and Outstanding Traditional Knowledge Award. Since childhood he used to collect saplings of native trees and later converted several barren lands to fruitful cultivation fields through his priceless efforts.
An Atlas cycle 20-years old, a basket full of tree saplings, 2 cans of water, one shovel and two boards – one around head and second on the chest giving the messages to plant trees, he sets off to his work every day. Also known as ‘a walking encyclopedia on plants’, this man riding on an old bicycle is a familiar face among locals. He plants saplings in each and every barren land he passes by.
Daripalli Ramaiah was born in 1937 in Reddypally village in Khammam district of Telangana state. He doesn’t own any formal education. His efforts are fully supported by his wife Janamma, who also accompanies him often. Through his tireless efforts for the past 5 decades, he has achieved a legendary status of ‘Green warrior’ among nature lovers. Through these years, he has planted over 10 million shady trees, fruit-bearing and bio-diesel plants.
He came to limelight for the first time in 1984. When N. T. Rama Rao came into power, he initialized a new project to support trees and create awareness among people. The project received huge media coverage and also support from celebrities, and more than 1 lakh plants were planted in different parts of Andhra Pradesh spending huge sums of money. Ramaiah also planted 2000 trees in his hometown. After a few months, when an investigation report came out, government’s tree campaign was a huge failure resulting huge loss. However the plants planted by Ramaiah was a huge success, and he created a forest. A news reporter reported this piece of information with much importance in ‘Andhra Jyoti’ daily and Ramaiah turned a star overnight.
Published: N/A
Updated: December 08, 2017
