As a teacher Bijay Kumar Bhatt has inspired scores of students to learn and succeed in life through his classroom teachings in Odisha’s Puri district over past two decades. But, he is eulogised as a role model for what he has achieved outside the classroom.
Mr. Bhatt has singlehandedly planted 30,000 trees in Astaranga area, a coastal pocket in Puri which has borne the brunt of cyclones, floods and tidal surge for years. The trees he has chosen to plant are palm, date palm and neem.
“It was the 1999 Super Cyclone that stirred me up. Lakhs of trees were uprooted while tidal surge had inundated vast stretches of cropland making it worthless for taking up crop in future. I could not imagine the green cover regaining its pervious shape in quick time,” he recollected.
