Tulsi Gowda: Padma Shri Awardee Known as Encyclopedia of Forest

NEW DELHI: Tulsi Gowda is a 72 years old environmentalist who had received Padma Shri Award from President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday 8 November.

Padma Awards 2021 has been presented to 119 prominent personalities at the official ceremony held in Rashtrapati Bhavan and among all 61 people received the Padma Shri Award.

Gowda became an internet sensation for her pictures and videos from Rashtrapati Bhavan that went viral on social media. In those videos and pictures, she was seen in utmost simplicity walking barefoot in the Durbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan to receive the Padma Award from President Ram Nath Kovind. In one of the pictures, she was seen greeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah while going to receive the award. Her tribal and simple avatar in pictures is loved and adored by people across the country.

Gowda is known for planting more than 30,000 saplings which led to a great environmental initiative in the country. She has made great contributions to protecting the environment by planting thousands of trees. Gowda is known widely as the "Encyclopedia of Forest" because of her extreme knowledge of diverse species of plants and herbs.

She was born in a poor family living in a village named Honnali located in Karnataka and her father died when she was at the age of 2. Gowda has no school education as she never went to school and got married at a very young age even before becoming a teenager. She belongs to the tribal community called the Halakki tribe in Karnataka.

Gowda at a very young age began to work with her mother in a local nursery of their village and later she joined the forest department working as a temporary volunteer. The forest department offered her a permanent job after recognizing her dedication to the preservation of nature. She got retired from her job at the age of 70.

Also read: Harekala Hajabba: Orange Seller Awarded with Padma Shri; Take a Look at his Story and Biography

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