The list of winners of Padma Shri Awards in 2021 has made the Indians proud because it has signalled that the awards are no longer reserved for the elite. They are given away to the most deserving citizens of India working at grass root level. One fact is that these awardees are inspirers and have contributed to society silently. Their work is not marketed by journalists. One such inspirer is Mr. Jitender Singh Shunty who became ‘family’ for thousands during the Covid second wave last summer. Due to the strict Covid protocol thousands of families abandoned their own kith and kin’s dead bodies but Jitendra Singh Shunty and his Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sewa Dal did humane work of cremating those abandoned bodies of Covid victims.

“I believe this award (Padma Shri) is a responsibility and a trust the President of India has bestowed upon us for continuing the social work. I will take it as a challenge”, said Jitender Singh Shunty on the occasion of being conferred with the Padma Shri award in the category ‘social work.’ Jitender Singh has been working persistently for service to poor people for more than 25 years in various areas plus by running ambulances to ferry and cremate bodies during Covid pandemic.

He gracefully announced that he is not the sole bearer of the Padma Shri award. He  dedicate it to all Covid warriors working with him which includes ambulance drivers and people working on the cremation ground and assisting in transporting patients and carrying bodies.

Mr Shunty was born in a poor family and lost his father at an early age. As a child, he witnessed multiple hardships and did odd jobs to make ends meet. It is in 1995, after Mr Shunty’s business picked up some momentum that saw him start his own organisation ‘Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sewa Dal’ which runs operations in Delhi. The organisation was established with the objective of saving lives through promoting availability, accessibility and effectiveness of emergency services. Since inception of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sewa Dal, Mr Shunty and his team have been taking care of the cremation of unclaimed bodies and those of poor people by providing ambulance service, mortuary box, and hearse van. In the last 25 years, the team has cremated over 56,000 bodies.

The team stepped up even during the COVID-19 pandemic and worked for 18 hours at a stretch given the horror of the task at hand because of massive emergencies. In the last one and a half years of COVID-19, the team cremated 4,000 dead bodies. Talking about his motivation and the belief that death must have dignity has kept him and his team going even when faced with extreme distress and disturbing circumstances. He and his teammates were deterred by others that Covid is an infectious disease, they must stay home. But he and his team continued their humane work of giving dignity to the dead by cremating the bodies gracefully in time.

To ensure the safety of his team and at the same time, assure that the COVID warriors are at the top of their game, Mr Shunty arranged for courses on first aid and dead body management for his frontline warriors. Mr Shunty believes the COVID-19 pandemic was an eye-opener for many as it showed the real face of people. Many found a family, an amigo in a stranger. While signing off, Mr Shunty gave the message of preparing for the future and helping one and all. During the pandemic, in many cases, even the family didn’t come forward to perform the last rites. On contrary, strangers came forward which shows that everyone can be a protector. The security forces sitting on the borders, guarding the country cannot take the sole responsibility of protecting the nation; while they protect us externally, internally every civilian is police and a guard.

Earlier in September, in an exclusive interview with NDTV, Mr Shunty had shared heart-wrenching stories of the suffering he witnessed first-hand. Recounting one such story, Mr Shunty said, during the worst phase of Covid a 20-year-old girl brought her father’s body to him and requested to perform the last rites. She told him that the previous night she was searching for a hospital but failed to find any and eventually she saw her father taking his last breath in the car itself; the ordeal didn’t stop there, she was struggling to find space for cremation. While working on the frontlines, Mr Shunty and his family tested positive for COVID-19 twice, he lost one of his ambulance drivers; sometimes he himself had slept in a car outside a cremation ground and sometimes in the parking area. But the passion to serve people kept the COVID warrior and his team going.

World across In most religions acceptance of cremation is a determining factor for many when considering the final disposition for themselves or loved ones. There are many religions, and even more sects, with attitudes that range from cremation as the preferred method to those that forbid it. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) this year in the month of May issued an advisory to the Centre and States on “upholding the dignity and protecting the rights of the dead” in view of the large number of deaths during this second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges in management of the bodies.

I salute Mr.Jitendra Singh Shunty for his most humane work of protecting dignity of dead people; honestly he should have been the “Padma Shri” much earlier.

It was very heartening to see the barefoot Tulasi Gowda cladded in her Halakki native style of saree receiving the Padma Shri award at the hands of President of India Ram Nath Kovind on Monday, 8^th November 2021. The tribal woman from Karnataka now in her eighties grew up in a poor family and did not receive any formal education, and yet, she is known as the ‘Encyclopaedia of the Forest’.

She is known to the world because of a retired IFS (Indian Forest Services) office Yellappa Reddy, who noticed her potential and pushed her to the fame. Mr. Reddy’s favourite subject during his active services was the silviculture of Indian trees that includes everything involved in the growing and cultivation of trees, its ecological and economic value, its utility, etc. Silviculture is the art and science of controlling the formation, growth, composition, health, and quality of forests and woodlands to meet the diverse needs and values of landowners and society such as wildlife habitat, timber, water resources, restoration, and recreation on a sustainable basis. He had noticed that more than 90 percent of native Indian trees have regeneration problems despite much research being conducted on them. He started taking help from Tulasi Gowda because she could identify a mother tree of any species anywhere in the forest and she still continues to do it.

Regeneration is best done with the seeds from the mother tree. Tulasi Gowda knows the timing of its flowering, germination and the best time to collect the seeds from the mother tree of a plant. The most common tree is Hopea parviflora (Bogi Mara in Kannada). Mr.Reddy says her understanding of the dynamics of the forest flora which refers to the various plants and fungi that can be found in the forest is simply par excellence; she knows has a superb understanding of the plants, shrubs, fungi which is absolutely updated. Though uneducated, Tulasi Gowda is in true sense a dendrofile – a person who loves trees.

Nagaraja Gowda of Uttara Kannada District Halakki Vokkalu Naukarara Sangha that works for the welfare of the Halakki tribe said Tulasi is the pride of their community because she has priceless knowledge of the forest and medicinal plants. Nobody has documented it and she cannot communicate it because she has not educated. But, because she has come into limelight for her benevolent work, I am sure Government of Karnataka will take necessary steps to document and implement usage of the medicinal plants soon. Mr. Yellappa Reddy says that she can identify more than 300 medicinal plants. The Halakki tribe is known for their knowledge of medicinal plants which they mostly utilise to prevent diseases than for cure. The knowledge and tradition is passed down through generations and Tulasi is a holder of it.

It is worth noting that Tulasi Gowda has vast knowledge of diverse species of plants and herbs because she has worked in the forest since her age of 12, she has planted and nurtured thousands of trees so far. She is also a temporary volunteer with the forest department where she was recognised for her dedication towards protecting nature. She was later offered a permanent job in the department.

Tulasi Gowda has spent most of her life around the trees and saplings that she nurtured with much care and love at the Agasur nursery of the forest department as part of their on-going afforestation efforts in the Mastikatta range of Honnalli village in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka. Though she has now retired as an employee of the forest department, she still continues to work in the forest; looking after and growing nearly 30,000 trees in various parts of the Uttara Kannada district.

Tulasi ajji (as she is known lovingly in her village) has unparalleled knowledge of silviculture of the Indian forest and trees which won this barefoot ecologist the Indira Priyadarshini Vrukshamitra Award in 1986 and Kannada Rajyotsava Award in 1999. More than a dozen awards and recognition later, the Padma Shri has come as value addition.

Afforestation is most important on the nation’s agenda to solve the problem of imbalance in the ecology, global warming, soil erosion, greenhouse effect etc. It is so nice of the Modi Government to recognize 12 farmers from nine states for the Padma Awards and especially recognizing Tulasi Gowda who in true sense is ‘Encyclopaedia of the Forest’.