Story of "Brikkho Bondhu" The Friend of Trees -Mr. Uttam Kumar Das from Bongaigaon, Assam.

Bongaigaon Times: 05.06.2020
Story By: Tridip Bhattacharya, Sumit Ghosh.

Shri Uttam Kumar Das, a senior commercial employee of the Indian railways, visited Bangalore in the early years of 21st century. It was there he noticed the impressive greenery of the city. He realized that Bangalore is much greener than most other metro cities in India. He returned to his hometown of Bongaigaon with lots of positive thoughts about Bangalore.

In 2014, Mr. Uttam Das decided to do something revolutionary. He made up his mind top plant trees across the town of Bongaigaon. Despite his hectic schedule in daily life, he never failed in his commitment to serve the environment.

Mr. Das is an experienced sapling maker. He makes them at his nursery and often distributes them to others for free of cost. In 2019, Mr. Uttam Das was invited by senior officials to a function hosted at Bongaigaon Railway Institute. There he was bestowed by the name ‘Brikho Bondhu’ (Friend of Trees) by the then Deputy Commissioner of Bongaigaon Mr. Adil Khan.

In June, the same year, the Union Railway Minister of India  (Piyush Goyal)as well as the senior official of N.F Railway thanked him through Twitter for his noble contribution towards the environment.

Mr. Uttam Das also visited Majuli, Jorhat (Assam) to meet Javed Peyeng, also known as the Forest Man of India.Mr. Uttam Das believes there is nothing special about making world records on planting trees.

Instead, we should focus on taking care of plants and nourishing them. He believes that fruitful results of planting trees will be witnessed in the near future. It will make our town greener than ever.

He appealed the Government to adopt the ideas of planting trees by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki.

Story By: Tridip Bhattacharya, Sumit Ghosh.
Bongaigaon Times