Amal Kumar Das has planted thousands of trees but not one of them grows in his house.

This EE Block resident has planted tall trees, fruit, flowering and medicinal trees across boulevards of Salt Lake, inside Central Park and now in FE Park. He looks after them selflessly without laying claim to a single one.

Das grew up in a village in North 24-Parganas where he would walk barefoot to school, carrying by his side a mat to sit on in class. “We would cross paddy plantations on the way and it’s since then that I love greenery,” says the man who later studied accountancy, joined CMDA (Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority) and in the year 2000, moved into Salt Lake.

Seeing how barren EE Block was back then, Das began planting avenue trees – badam, ashwattha, banyan, jackfruit…. “I also started planting in Banabitan, where I would go for morning walks,” says Das. At this point his friends hijack the conversation and fill in the details.

“We are all morning walk friends and would meet at Banabitan, in a space near the iron bridge there,” says Kalidas Sarkar, a resident of EE Block. “Amal planted so many trees there that we’d nicknamed the patch Amal Kanan (forest). The space must have been at least a bigha.”

Das has planted over 200 trees there like jalpai, litchi, palm and bakul, “but the Banabitan authorities don’t even know of it. He did it anonymously. It’s only we morning walkers who would see him at it,” adds another friend, Samiran Chatterjee of EE Block.

But everything changed in 2022 when the authorities started charging morning walkers for entering Banabitan. “There were mass protests outside their gates by senior citizens who felt we were being deprived of a basic facility but the authorities didn’t relent. Our group never returned and most of us walk now in FE Park,” says Das, who has visited Banabitan a few times since then and found several of his planted trees to have languished.

Second innings

This is something he will not allow in FE Park, where he then shifted focus. “There is a tap in the park but water supply is irregular so I sometimes carry two 5l barrels of water from home. I also turn to the Corporation tap in Karunamoyee but it is usually crowded. I get my own tools from home and plant saplings that I grow myself, buy or receive as gifts from friends,” Das says, mentioning a list of good Samaritans who pitch in.

Prabir Basu of EE Block gifts saplings, as does C.R. Dugar of Karunamoyee. “R.K. Saraf of FE Block asks point blank what I need and fulfils every requirement,” smiles Das, adding how Asoke Dalui of EE Block brings saplings from a relative’s nursery. “I strongly suspect he has to pay for them but will never admit it.”

Das has planted multiple plants of 23 different species in FE Park, with special focus on haritaki, amlaki and bahera, that are jointly known as “trifola” in ayurveda. He’s planted Nagalingams as they are sacred to various communities and some trees like deua as they are favourites of birds. “The fruits are free for all but some people uproot the entire tree and take away. It happened to a chilli plant the other day. Mango plants get stolen too,” complains a walker, Sankar Das.

But Amal Das says he doesn’t mind as long as the plant is being looked after in its new habitat. He himself consumes fruits only if they have fallen to the ground.

He shows some mango and coconut trees planted in FE Park by an NGO. “These groups invest to buy these plants but there is no provision for their care. So they inform me and I’m happy to nurture them till maturity,” smiles Das.

Saplings in the open have a high mortality rate. “They get chewed up by cows and destroyed by kids. The neem’s leaves, particularly, get plucked and twigs get broken off to brush teeth. Bel leaves are ripped off to perform puja. There’s no harm in taking these from mature trees but in nascent trees they can cause much damage,” says Das, who has tied several ailing plants to sticks to give them support.

But there is hope yet. “Once I was tending to a sapling when a child from the adjacent municipal school saw me from a window. He thought I was uprooting the tree and started shouting at me to stop. It made me so happy!” says Das, who does not maintain a garden in his own house as he is wary of unleashing a water crisis in the co-operative he lives in.

“I consider all plants my own,” he reflects. “The reason our city is dirty is because we claim ownership over our homes, but believe the streets belong to the government. We diligently clean our homes but carelessly litter the streets. Similarly we need to extended our sense of ownership to all plants, so we feel responsible for their upkeep.”