Tulsi Gowda, a 72-year-old Karnataka environmentalist, received the Padma Shri award on November 8 for her efforts to environmental protection. Her ecological narrative has served as an inspiration to many others throughout the years.
Tulsi Gowda received the Padma Shri award yesterday, which is the country’s fourth highest civilian honour. The tribal environmentalist was barefoot and clad in traditional clothing when President Ram Nath Kovind awarded him with the prize.
Tulsi Gowda comes from a poor and disadvantaged family and belongs to the Halakki indigenous tribe of Karnataka. Despite the fact that Gowda never had any official education during her early years, she continued to broaden her knowledge in the realm of plants and other wildlife.
Today, she is known as the ‘Encyclopedia of the Forest’, as she possesses vast knowledge about the herbs and plant species found across the world. Ever since she was a teenager, she has been actively contributing to protecting the environment and has planted thousands of trees.
Tulsi Gowda joined the forest department as a temporary volunteer so that she could further contribute and make a significant change for environment conservation. She was later recognized for her efforts and offered a permanent position with the forest department.
Dedicated to preserving nature her entire life, Tulsi has planted more than 30,000 saplings in her lifetime and has been involved in multiple environmental conservation activities since the young age of 10.
She began working towards improving the forests of India at the age of 12 when she was working alongside her mother at a nursery. Even at the age of 72, she is dedicated to nurturing the environment and fighting afforestation in the country.
