RAJKOT: In 2012, Premjibhai Patel left everyone surprised when he dug his own grave, literally! Patel, who is credited with planting over 10 million trees, told his family members that not a single piece of wood should be used in his cremation.
On Friday, Premji Bapa (94) of Upleta taluka in Rajkot died in Ahmedabad. But the pandemic, the family could not complete his last wish — to be buried in the grave he dug for himself. He was 94.
“Due to the prevailing Covid situation, we had to perform his last rites in Ahmedabad as per the protocol,” his industrialist son Rayji Patel, with whom he lived, told TOI. "I can't see the trees which I planted being chopped for my death. No wood should be used in my agni sanskar," he had said then, urging family members to cover the pit after burying him and start farming on it.
Premjibhai was felicitated with the National Water Award -2008 by the union ministry of water resources for building nearly 1,700 check dams across Saurashtra.
A successful businessman in Mumbai, Patel returned to his native 1967 with a sole aim to embark on a mission to turn arid Saurashtra green. He founded a non-governmental organization (NGO), which initiated a number of water harvesting and tree plantation projects in Rajkot district. He also wanted to make a forest area from Gir stretching right up to Dwarka.
Premjibhai had started broadcasting seeds, the method of plantation by scattering the seeds, with the help of his volunteers. Later, his son-in-law designed and gifted him a blower machine to broadcast seeds as his work spread in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
“Impressed by the innovative blower machine, former President, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam had also met him during a function in Ahmedabad,” said Menshi Saraiya, an environment activist, who has been working with Premjibhai since 1997.