Forest official digs into savings to feed an entire village

Apr 9, 2020, 04:12 IST

Coimbatore: The function of the forest department’s rapid response team is to swing into action if a man-animal conflict is reported anywhere in the district. But an official of the team has gone beyond the call of duty to provide food and safety masks to all residents of a village.
S S Sandeep, the RRT official, said the villagers are mainly agriculture wage labourers with no income in times of the nationwide lockdown. “I decided to use my savings to buy food for around 300 people, along with bread and biscuits for kids. I also bought 500 safety masks for them,” he said.
Without work for these three weeks of the lockdown, the villagers were being provided food by volunteers of NGOs. “On seeing this, I thought that even I need to do my bit to help these people,” Sandeep said.
His team prepared lunch for the labourers and distributed food packets at a police station near the village. “When we distributed food and masks to the villagers, they were overjoyed. I have done it for today and plan to feed them at least once a week till the situation becomes normal,” he said.
Sandeep was supported in his humanitarian gesture by the district forest officer, D Venkatesh, and several others from his department. “More people should come forward to help people in villages such as Varapalayam, as its residents are mainly daily wage workers in agriculture or allied sectors and have been hit hard by the lockdown,” he said.