When couples are unable to have children, it is easy to succumb to bitterness and blame fate. However, 68-year-old Deenanath Kol and his 65-year-old wife, Nanki Devi—from a small village in the Dabhoura region of Rewa district—chose to channel their heartache into an extraordinary act of devotion to nature.
Finding their own home quiet, they turned to Mother Nature. They adopted the earth as their child, treating every sapling they planted with the love and care they would have given their own flesh and blood.
There was a time when this region offered nothing but miles of barren, rocky, and desolate wasteland. Yet, through sheer grit and selfless determination, this couple transformed the arid forest land into a lush, green sanctuary. Where there was once only dust and stone, they painstakingly sowed seeds.
Today, a vast 105-acre expanse has been reborn as a thriving forest. These are not merely 10,000 trees; they are living testaments to Deenanath’s relentless hard work—breathing life into the landscape and providing pure air to the entire community.
Jagdish Yadav, a local resident, notes that Deenanath can be found tending to the plants from dawn till dusk. Whether enduring the scorching summer heat or the torrential monsoon rains, he has never wavered in his devotion to his "children." While the couple have dedicated their entire lives to raising this forest, they have sadly never received the recognition or support they so richly deserve.
Battling Against the Odds
According to Jagdish, the couple’s journey has been fraught with heartbreaking obstacles. In an effort to keep the saplings hydrated, Deenanath painstakingly dug a well. However, the Forest Department deemed it an encroachment and filled it back in. Deprived of water, a tragic number of young plants perished. Although the District Collector later approved a borehole to help them, the drilling has unfortunately never taken place.
How It All Began
Reflecting on the origins of his life's work, Deenanath recalls:
"It all started back in 1990. We had been invited to a family gathering in the village, and I noticed a huge pile of mango stones thrown away in the rubbish. I gathered up two sacks of them, brought them to the wasteland, and planted them."
From those humble beginnings, he went on to plant a variety of fruit-bearing trees, including mango, amla, guava, and jujube. Many of the early saplings withered and died, but over time, the barren landscape began to bloom.
"We were never blessed with children," Deenanath says softly. "So, we simply made the trees our family."