Kollakkayil Devaki Amma: The Woman Who Built A Forest
Kollakkayil Devaki Amma: The Woman Who Built A Forest Long before the world had started taking to the streets and raising their voices against environmental degradation, Kollakkayil Devaki Amma was already undertaking the initiative of creating a sustainable environment in her backyard. It was her love for the environment and her desire to mitigate the effects of climate change that allowed her to create a forest over the five acre stretch around her home. Devaki Amma’s grandfather, a vaidyan , was a great source of influence for Devaki Amma. It was he, who helped her inculcate a love for horticulture. Her feelings were intensified when she married Gopalkrishna Pillai, an English teacher, in whose family all women were required to engage in agricultural work. Devaki Amma would assist her mother-in-law in cultivating paddy until 1980 when she injured her leg and was advised against walking. After three years, she planted a sapling in her backyard and the process began. In a short d...