Umashankar Mandal, 40, hails from a remote island in the Sunderbans and is a geography teacher at a Murshidabad high school.

Over the past decade, he earned the moniker of “Mangrove Man” for the12-year-long tree plantation drive he started in the area following the devastation caused by Cyclone Aila in 2009.

Mandal, residents of the area admiringly say, has planted over 6.5 lakh saplings with help of 135 associates on the embankments of the rivers of two islands, Gosaba and Satjelia. Local residents say they have grown to consider the tree cover as a “shield” for their lives, that was proved true during Cyclone Amphan last year and Cyclone Yaas this year.

“Aila gave us a lesson. I can’t forget it. It was May 25, 2009 when I, along with a few friends, placed ourselves behind the breached embankment to save our village from being flooded. But we failed to save the homes and properties as the river water was mightier than our efforts. My mud house collapsed and almost all the villagers became homeless, which led me to think about a permanent solution. As a student of geography, I began to be sure that mangrove plantation was the one and only remedy,” said Mandal.

Villagers speculate that even recent initiatives by the state government, especially those by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, in undertaking large-scale mangrove plantation drives on the Sunderbans embankments is a nod for the good work initiated by Mandal a decade ago.

Following Cyclone Amphan in 2020, Mamata Banerjee had directed the South 24-Parganas district administration to plant five crore mangrove saplings. After Cyclone Yaas, the state government had undertaken a plan to plant 15 crore mangrove trees to maintain the ecosystem of the Sunderbans.

“Embankments were breached at hundreds of points because of the rise in water levels during Yaas. Several areas were washed away as saline water had entered the villages after breaching the embankments. We did not suffer from such a large crisis during Yaas. We were saved as the saplings we planted 10 years ago had become a dense mangrove forest along with our river embankment,” said Kumaresh Mandal, a villager from Lahiripur area of Gosaba.

Bankim Hazra, Sunderbans affairs minister, said that Mandal had been working silently with help of villagers for the past 12 years and that Hazra’s department was planning to felicitate him sometime this year for his extraordinary work.

“I came to know about the geography teacher and his initiative a few months ago. I have not personally met him but have heard from local district officials about his initiative. Our government has taken a large scale drive to plant mangroves under the leadership of our chief minister Mamata Banerjee. I have a plan to felicitate the youth for his work,” said Hazra, the minister.

According to Mandal, a lack of awareness had caused mangroves to be cut off, combined with absence of administrative care and attention towards these natural barriers on the islands in South 24-Parganas.

The journey he started was not easy. In 2009, Mandal took out a personal loan of Rs 3 lakh to hire staff for the plantation.

“Primarily, I was alone in starting the initiative. I used to collect the seeds of mangrove trees floating in the river by boat. Then, I used to plant them along the embankments. If I planted a hundred saplings, not more than 50 percent could survive,” said Mandal, the geography teacher of Jangipur High School in Murshidabad.

Recently, he had set up a platform namely ‘Purbasha’ to bring more people under the umbrella of the plantation drive.

The solo campaign of Mandal has now become a team effort after local residents began realising the importance of his work within a few years.

“It was like a movement. People from different villages started raising questions as to why they would provide free labour to plant the trees. It was my luck that a few of my friends and relatives joined me in the drive and convinced the villagers,” he said.

Mandal said he, along with his team members, work for three months from August to collect the seeds of mangrove trees and plant saplings throughout the year.

“I am happy as we were able to save our areas from back to back cyclones — Bulbul, Amphan and Yaas. Yaas is an important example as the shield of mangroves that we built helped us save our embankments,” added the teacher.

Mandal can’t pay salaries to people who work in the plantation drives but he provides clothes, books and food to the children of families who work in his drive through crowdfunding.

“I am happy as many people, and my friends, now fund me to continue my drive. I am happy that a large number of people, mostly women, are with us,” he added.