63-year-old man spends his own money to develop a park on corporation land
For more than a decade now, the only routine of Erappa Nashi’s life has been planting and maintaining the garden located at Vajrahanuman Nagar locality of the city.
Maintaining a garden is certainly not strange, but what is intriguing is that Nashi, a 63-year-old short man, has been taking care of the garden belonging to the City Municipal Corporation without any financial assistance from the government.
As per the norms, the Corporation is supposed to develop the land, but it has literally done nothing to develop the acre of land as a garden.
“Over ten years ago, I noticed that this site was reserved for a park, but it neither had a plant nor it was fenced. It was an open area. It was then I decided to plant some saplings and develop it,” said Nashi, while watering the plants.
He said that having no children, he has been treating the trees as his children. “My wife is working as a cook in a government office. I spend the entire day at this park taking care of my children,” he said passionately.
He said that in the last decade, he has spent nearly Rs. 2 lakh from his own pocket for developing and maintaining the park.
“After my prolonged struggle, the district administration got a borewell drilled and a fence erected. This is its only contribution. It has not supplied a single sapling to the park”, he said.
Mr. Nashi claimed that he has planted over 2,000 saplings of different varieties including neem, banyan, mango, etc., besides 30 banana and papaya plants and hundreds of ornamental plants.
When asked, he said that in the beginning, his wife was objecting to his passion “but gradually she accepted it.”
Though this aging man has been taking care of the garden, he neither has been given any remuneration nor salary for his selfless act.
“I am growing old. If not for living, I may at least need money for medicines if I fall sick. Which is why I am asking the government to pay something, or at least appoint me as a gardener,” he said.
