Interview Times 
No matter in which direction life took him, nothing could make him part ways from his love for trees and the nature. In his journey so far, Mr. Dilip Srichandan has played several roles including a teacher, facilitator, an author and many others, but among all, he is known widely as an environmentalist in its true sense.
He realised that deforestation is the major cause of global warming at a very tender age, and took up a mission to plant trees as much as possible. As he kept on marching ahead on his mission, today Srichandan has managed to plant 20 lakhs+ trees across the globe.
Being the founder of Prerana International Green Army, Mr. Srichandan has now made it a mission to pass on the message of ‘Go Green’ to the young generation. Under his Green Army, the environmentalist has pioneered several initiatives to increase green cover all across and conserve the habitat. Likewise, he has earned several titles for his deed, with the latest being the ‘Tree Man of India’.
We got some fruitful time with the ecofreak and knew about his journey and mission to ‘Paint the world green’.
We all know you as a strong political leader, Apart from this, you have also earned the title of ‘Green Man of Odisha’, can you share with us the story behind the title?
It all started during my school days back in 1986. While I got the best social worker award, I was clueless of reason for which the school conferred it on me. Later when I asked my school teacher doubting that I may have got someone else’s prize by mistake, my teacher explained to me that I got this award for planting trees inside my school and helping poor families during floods. That left a huge impact in my mind.
Eventually, during my college period, I got an opportunity to plant trees inside my college campus as a volunteer in National Service Scheme (NSS). At that time I also participated in an eco-development camp organized at Rourkela, as a volunteer from my college. In the camp, I was felicitated by renowned environmentalist Prof. Radha Mohan as a ‘Tree Friend’. As times passed, two years after I started working as a Professor in Shree Jagannath College, Kaipadar Khordha, I was given the charge of NSS Program Officer. During that period, I had planted 20,000 trees of different varieties inside my college campus with the help of the students, for which I was also awarded as the Best Program Officer of the state. Intuitively, all those acts developed an attachment towards plantation in me.
How did you manage to continue those activities after becoming a legislator? What more you have done in this direction in all these years?
While, I was elected as the MLA of Khordha in 1998, subsequently the super cyclone in 1999 turned the Coastal Odisha into a barren land. It was then that I realized that there was a need for a tree movement. That is when I started a drive to plant trees and later in 2004 also started an organization called ‘Prerna’ to work further in this direction. In meantime, I decided to write a literature on trees which were later published as ‘Stop Global Warming from Your School’. It was released by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. My main objective behind this book was to make the students aware of tree plantation right from the school itself and make them understand about the gift of trees to the earth. I also made an animation video with a rhyme named as ‘Gachha Tie Mun Gachha Tie Tumari Ghar Ra Pilla Tie’.
Apart from this, while I was president of the Governing Body of ‘Kamanguru College’ campus for over 10 years, I had planted more than 10,000 trees with the help of students on the campus during the period. At present, while I am one of the advisors of the governing body, I have planted trees in the name of all the Prime Ministers and Presidents of India and all the Chief Ministers and Governors of Odisha there in last one year. Moreover, we has also made a ‘Bio Diversity Centre’ there which has 58 to 60 types of plants, 20 to 30 types of animals including elephant, mongoose, rabbit, donkey live there.
Also during the 75th Independence Day, I had suggested the people of my village to celebrate this day as a memorial to the martyrs, instead of making a statue for the martyrs at various places, they should plant a tree in their village in their name. Likewise , I take initiative for planting trees at different places from time to time.
You have started a movement to resolve the issue of scarcity of specific timbers required for the construction of chariot during World renowned cart festival of Odisha, share us something about that.
As per the age-old tradition, a specific timber is required for the construction of three chariots of Lord Jagannath and his siblings in Puri. Finding this specific type of tree is getting difficult as those variety of trees generally take 70 to 80 years to meet the required measurements for chariot construction. To fulfil the requirements, timbers were collected from Nayagarh district and this year it has been collected from Ganjam district. In past, steps were taken to replenish the Phasi, Asana and Dharua by planting saplings. That led to launch of Jagannath Bana Prakalpa in 2002. But the present conditions of these projects are a far cry from it what was intended for.
To resolve this trouble, I discussed with Gajapati Maharaj to start ‘Jaganath Vatika’ under which we will talk to people and convince them to plant a tree in their garden for lord Jaganath. We have started this movement first from ITER SOA campus. Current Union Minister of Education, Dharmendra Pradhan, Gajapati Maharaj Divyasingha Deba and Odisha’s Chief Forest Conservator besides servitors of Lord Jaganath have also joined that movement. After that we have started another Jaganath Vatika in KIIT Campus, Bhubaneswar. Then with the motive ‘Jaga Pain Gacha Tie Laga’ we have planted trees across different places of Odisha.
Tell us about your initiation of Green Army.
With the aim of making Odisha the green capital of the world, I had formed the Prerna International Green Army in 2013. So far over 10 lakh youths from over 40 countries have joined this army. The then Governor, SC Jamir appointed me as the Chief Commandant of this Green Army. Through this army we have started a movement whose slogan is “Plant a tree, Join us, Feel proud, Be a green warrior to save our Mother Earth”. Our main focus is to plant a tree locally, to reduce warming globally.
This apart, while I have a joint family of 141 members sharing the same roof, I took another initiative in during 2021, 60 delegates from 20 countries came to see the Indian family value system. There I requested them to plant one sapling by each representative, to build a Foreign Friendship Garden. The reason was that when their next generations come to Odisha they can say that their forebears have planted a tree and can visit that place to see the growth of that plant.
Likewise, in my village Gayabandh, located in Khordha district, we have reserved a forest of about 700 acres of land. Now there are 13 elephants living there. Until now, I have planted over 20 lakhs trees besides have played active roles in conserving at least 10 village forest across Odisha.
What Awards have you received till Now for this act of yours?
I have received several accolades for this cause over the years, but some of the prominent ones among them are the title of ‘Green Man’ awarded by Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik in 2009, the ‘Bharata Gacha Purusha’ by governor Prof. Ganeshi Lal in 2018 and recently in 2022 I got the title of ‘Tree Man Of India’ by governor of Andhra Pradesh, Bishwa Bhusana Harichandan.
This apart, I have got titles like ‘Gaccha Bandhu’, ‘Gacha Manisa’, ‘Gaccha Surakhya Senpati’ at several platforms across the world.
