Every plantation drive in India follows a familiar script. Officials arrive with saplings, photographers capture the ceremonial digging, and banners announce yet another green milestone.
Then everyone leaves, and the young trees are left to fend for themselves against heat, traffic dust, and stray cattle. Most do not survive the first year.
Gopal, a potter from Uttar Pradesh, noticed this pattern long before it became a talking point. Instead of adding to the pile of saplings planted along roads every season, he decided to look after the ones already struggling to grow.
For the last 12 years, he has spent his time, money, and energy watering roadside trees near his home in Banaras, a routine that has quietly earned him the name “Oxygen Baba.”
From clay to compassion
Gopal earns his living shaping earthen pots, a craft that ties him closely to soil and water. That everyday familiarity with the earth seems to have shaped his instinct to nurture rather than simply plant.
He began his mission with a few buckets of water carried on foot to the saplings lining his neighbourhood roads. There was no funding, no organisation, and no plan beyond making sure the young trees did not die of neglect.
What started as a modest gesture has since grown into a full daily operation. Gopal now uses a 500-litre water tank to reach roadside trees across a wider stretch, watering them with the same discipline he brings to his pottery wheel.
His approach relies less on scale and more on the kind of steady water conservation that keeps a sapling alive long enough to become a tree.
Why so many saplings never make it
Gopal’s instinct is backed by hard data. A 2022 report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India found that more than 40% of trees planted under compensatory afforestation schemes failed to survive beyond the first year, largely because saplings were planted in unsuitable areas and left unmonitored afterward.
Other assessments of tree plantation drives note that a shortage of water in the first two years of growth can push survival rates below half, particularly along roadsides where soil is compacted and shade is scarce.
This is the gap Gopal chose to fill. Rather than waiting for civic bodies to maintain what they had planted, he took on the responsibility himself, one tank of water at a time.
Ridicule, obstacles, and a tank of water
Gopal’s daily rounds were not always met with appreciation. Some people mocked his work or saw it as pointless. He also had limited resources and often covered the cost of water and transport from his income as a potter.
He continued.
Each morning, he fills his tank and makes his way to the same stretches of road, tending to the saplings that depend on regular watering.
The routine demands time, physical effort and consistency, especially during the hottest months of the year. For Gopal, the work has become part of everyday life.
Why they call him ‘Oxygen Baba’
The nickname reflects both affection and respect from those who have watched him work without expecting recognition or reward.
It also nods to the larger purpose behind his labour: healthy, mature roadside trees clean the air, offer shade to pedestrians, and cool cities steadily losing their urban green cover to construction and traffic.
Gopal rarely speaks of himself in these terms, preferring instead to talk about the trees he tends, but the name has stuck because it captures precisely what his work gives back to the city.
A lesson bigger than one man’s tank
Gopal’s story reframes what environmental action can look like. It does not always require large budgets, government schemes, or dramatic afforestation targets. Sometimes it requires someone willing to show up daily with a tank of water and the patience to watch a sapling become a tree.
Twelve years on, Gopal continues his rounds through Banaras, proving that protecting nature does not demand great wealth. It only asks for consistency, compassion, and the courage to keep showing up.
Sources:
‘Tree Planting Drives Will Not Save India’s Environment‘: by Countercurrents, Published on 12 June 2025
‘High Tree Mortality Rates in Plantation Drives: Can Deforestation Be Prevented Through CAMPA?‘: by Counterview, Published on 14 July 2025
‘Tree Plantation Challenges in India & How to Overcome Them‘: by Plant A Million Trees, Published on 1 December 2025
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: thebetterindia.com
