Working as a security guard with Singareni Collieries Company Limited’s (SCCL) Security and Protection Corps (S&PC), Datla Venkateswarlu of the 24 incline area in Yellandu town spends his free time in promotion of greenery.
Published Date – 7 February 2024, 05:18 PM
Yellandu (Kothagudem): Showing love for nature, an SCCL employee has been engaged in free distribution of saplings to the public for the last several years.
Working as a security guard with Singareni Collieries Company Limited’s (SCCL) Security and Protection Corps (S&PC), Datla Venkateswarlu of the 24 incline area in Yellandu town spends his free time in promotion of greenery.
He buys saplings of fruits bearing trees, exotic flowering plants, ornamental and medicinal plants, which he propagates at his residence which he turned into a mini-nursery. He receives visitors, who regularly come to his house seeking plants, with much warmth and happily gives them as many plants as they need.
Speaking to Telangana Today, Venkateswarlu informed that he also collects plants from different sources like the Forest department, SCCL and friends, who want to dispose of additional plants at their houses. He collects seeds and also picks up saplings and branches of flowering plants thrown on the roads to propagate them at his house.
He said he was inspired by his father Datla Ramulu as well as by green crusader Vanajeevi Ramaiah and started collecting and distributing saplings in 2005 for the protection of the environment. He wants every household to have some plants, either fruit bearing or flowering plants.
Sometimes Venkateswarlu carries indoor and outdoor plants in a bag to distribute to the public at main junctions in the town. He said he feels happy in distributing the plants to people and educating them about maintaining greenery in their houses.
He received numerous awards such as Dr. BR Ambedkar Fellowship Award presented to him in 2019 by Bharatiya Dalit Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi for promoting greenery. He also received Mana Telugu Tejam Award during former premier PV Narasimha Rao’s birth centenary celebrations.
“The happiest moment was when Vanajeevi Ramaiah and his wife came to Yellandu to felicitate me a few years ago and appreciated my work. I never allow my friends, relatives or others who my house return empty handed, I give them at least one plant to grow at their house,” Venkateswarlu noted.
