Retired SDO, Parduman Thukral has dedicated his life for environment distributing free plants and cloth handbags in Jalandhar.

A day in the life of an environmentalist

Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, December 15

Day before was the birthday of this septuagenarian environmentalist. As Parduman Singh Thukral (popularly known as ‘Boota Singh’) turned 77, he made sure that the day was special. He chose the occasion to distribute free saplings, readied by him, to the residents. He also distributed free cloth handbags to more than 500 people of Jalandhar.

A resident of Shaheed Udham Singh (SUS) Nagar here, Thukral says he dedicates at least four hours a day to the two public parks around his place daily. Even though there are gardeners employed by the mohalla societies, he spends two hours apiece planting flowers and ayurvedic bushes and maintains also them.

Having retired as SDO from Public Works Department (PWD), Thukral developed this passion around 10 years ago. “Carrying saplings in a crate on my bicycle, I have personally planted about 35,000 trees along roadsides. I have learnt the art of propagating new plants and have distributed over 5,000 saplings of hibiscus, jamun, harsingar and raat ki rani to the residents of Udham Singh Nagar, Shakti Nagar and other localities.”

After retiring, he had no gardening space within his house. So he would take a spade and plant some bushes and seasonal flowers in the park facing his place. In 2013, he lost his wife to cancer and thereon began devoting more time to environment. “Even though it is cold these days, I am out of bed at 7 am. I work in the SUS Nagar park for two hours, go home for breakfast and quickly move to the other park in Shakti Nagar that I am maintaining,” he tells.

In both the parks, he has made corners leaving some space for propagating more plants. I use these areas for nursery work. “I ready tree saplings, put them in my cycle and plant them on roadsides wherever I find spaces as I have done in Bashirpura ground, Lions Club, Rock Garden and around other buildings.”

Thukral adds, "Twice I have been the elected president of my colony.”