Saalumarada Thimmakka- A story for children on environment awareness

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ส.ค. 2024
  • More than a hundred years ago, in a village near Tumakuru District of Karnataka, in India, a girl child was born to Chikkarangayya and Vijayamma- a labourer couple. They named her Thimmakka.
    They lived in abject poverty and had no means to send Thimmakka to school. The girl therefore started helping her parents as a labourer from a very young age.
    Soon she was married to Bikkalu Chikkayya who was also a labourer. They led a peaceful life.
    But the couple were childless. This made them sad. After a few years they realised that they would never have children after all.
    The couple then decided to plant banyan trees and take care of them as their own children.
    Thus, after their hard day’s work as labourers, with the remaining time, they started planting saplings in a row for several kilometres.
    Everyday, they manually carried water for a long distance to nurture all the saplings.
    They protected them from cattle and other animals from grazing the saplings by fencing them with thorny shrubs.
    Systematically over a period of time, they planted and nurtured over 384 banyan trees that stand tall and provide shelter and home to several birds, animals and humans.
    A few years later Chikkyya died leaving Timmakka with their grown up “green children”.
    Thimmakka is honoured with the National Citizen’s award of India and many international awards for her great service for a better world and environment.
    She is now fondly called “Saalumarada Timmakka”- i.e the Row tree fame- Timmakka.
    Banyan tree:
    A banyan tree is a unique tree that has roots upwards and branches downwards. A banyan tree is a great relief to travellers that give them shade and shelter. The figs or seeds that the tree produces are eaten by many birds and mammals. Therefore, the tree is a home for many varieties of birds, squirrels and bats. This tree’s leaves, barks and seeds are excellent fertilizers. The tree also has great medicinal value and it is also the National tree of India.
    So what Thimmakka and Chikkayya has given us is not only a gift of nature, but also a lesson of patience and perseverance.

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