The Green Man of Telangana

In 2018, Joginapally Santosh Kumar, the Rajya Sabha MP from Telangana launched Green India Challenge. The initiative of urging people to plant trees snowballed into a movement not just in the state but celebrities cutting across India joined the crusade. Mahesh Avadhuta explains how an idea caught the imagination of one and all

• Green India Challenge has entered its 5th year
• It has become a people’s movement with people from different walks of life extending support
• Forest blocks running into a few thousand acres are being adopted by celebrities
• There are nearly 80 plus forest clusters in Telangana starting with a minimum of 200 acres ready to be adopted

When Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Rajya Sabha member Joginapally Santosh Kumar, 45, floated the Green India Challenge in 2018, he did not realize that it would become so popular. A person plants a sapling or a tree and exhorts three others to do the same. A selfie is posted on social media handles and others follow suit and the ‘green baton’ passes on.

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Santosh admitted that he never expected Green India Challenge to become such a big phenomenon. “I just wanted to do my bit, with passion and goal, in creating awareness among citizens. People got emotionally attached and started supporting it wholeheartedly.

Celebrities from different fields joined the campaign. Some of them are Vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu, Supreme Court Chief Justice NV Ramana, Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Kapil Dev, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Sachin Tendulkar, Pullela Gopichand, Mahesh Babu, Prabhas and the list goes on.

Not just in Telangana and various States of India, NRIs across the globe are planting trees voluntarily and exhorting three of their near and dear ones to plant saplings and repeat the chain. Be it a birthday, house warming event or weddings, nature lovers are becoming green warriors and tagging MP Santosh on social media handles with respective pictures. Also, whichever programme or meeting the MP is attending, organizers are requesting Santosh to plant a sapling at the venue before commencing the programme.

Green India Challenge kicked off a new people’s movement among nature lovers of the nation. When asked whether he faced any challenges to push the bar in Green India Challenge, Santosh says he is blessed in this aspect.

“Due to constant support of CM KCR garu, brother and Minister KTR garu and self-determination to give something back to the society, I never faced any obstacles or challenges in the green journey thus far. Governments are doing commendable work in a lot of things, but if we as citizens also chip in it could bring a big transformation, classic example being “Green India Challenge” the MP opined.

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Adopting Forest Blocks

MP Santosh is ensuring GIC’s slogan “Hara Hain Toh, Bhara Hai” is fulfilled to a great extent by not confining the drive just to urban and rural areas. He took a big leap by adopting 2,042 acres of Keesara forest block in 2019 and allocated Rs 3 crore from his MP funds and own pocket for this purpose. After his call, “Baahubali” fame Prabhas adopted 1,650 acres of Kazipally reserve forest, then Akkineni Nagarjuna adopted 1,100 acres of Chengicherla forest block and later B. Parthasaradhi Reddy, Chairman & MD of Hetero Drugs Limited who is now a Rajya Sabha MP, also adopted 2,543 acres of Mumbapur – Nallavelli Reserve forest in Sangareddy district and gave Rs 5 crore as the initial grant.

“I am blessed and overwhelmed with the massive support.”
———–MP Santosh

Elaborating further, Santosh stated that four forest blocks have been adopted till now and he is trying to rope in ten more big names including Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Limited (MEIL), Daggubati Suresh Babu from Late D Ramanaidu’s family into this list in coming months. There are nearly 80 plus forest clusters in Telangana starting with a minimum of 200 acres and the effort is to get them adopted and ensure afforestation in a big way boosting the green cover, he said.

Who’s Who from politics, movies and television, sports, industry, other walks of life have become green warriors by planting trees as part of GIC till now.

Sharing his thoughts about best compliments or feedback he had received till now, Santosh said that a person once told him that every initiative or a challenge has some negative or minus points, but Green India Challenge is different as it only spreads positivity and has advantages and no disadvantages at all.

Green India Challenge has entered its 5 th year and when asked about his target or goal for next 5 years, the green crusade stated that his responsibility increased further. “Making places and surroundings greener, safeguarding nature and environment for better quality of life is a never ending journey. My team and I will pursue it relentlessly,” says Santosh before signing off.

How to participate in “Green India Challenge”

According to GIC representatives Sanjeev Raghavender Yadav and Karunakar Reddy, they are getting several queries from different sections on how to take part in this initiative. The process is simple.

• Just plant 3 saplings in premises of your House, Park or Open Space, Office, Residential Area or Colony.
• WhatsApp your selfies to 90003 65000.
• The next moment you will receive a reply message to download an App.
• Then upload your selfies on the App and subsequently GIC team will be widely sharing it in their groups besides uploading the same on social media handles.

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