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Love for Lord makes him live with the 'green' to replicate a mini Chipko Movement in Jharkhand’s Capital.

Odds dog him, but fail to deter Daya Shankar from the mission that he has set on to save the greenery of ‘Pahari Mandir’ atop a hillock. For, he cannot beat a retreat, lest his late grand father Shisha Maharaj might turn in grave. Way back in 1954, freedom fighter Maharaj planted 25 ‘peepal’ and ‘bargad’ saplings in the hillock that now boasts of over 1100 trees planted in its 27 acres by erstwhile Bihar Government land at his initiative.

Now danger is in. Soil erosion threatens to denude the sylvan hillock. But Daya has resolved not to let it so, lest the hillock might get back its old tagline of 'phansi tungri', where British brutality had bumped off many lives.

Even as his venture gets tough, Daya gets going to pose a hedge against any possible disaster. “If landslide occurs and trees topple, it would wreak havoc on 300 families on its southeastern side,” said Daya, a devout devotee of ‘Baba’ (Lord Shiva) worshipped at Pahari Mandir.

Daya had a fierce battle with ‘mafia of monks’ to retrieve Pahari mandir from their clutch in early nineties. Now he has got into his stride to keep the greenery evergreen. Pleased with his undertaking, Pahari Mandir Committee now readily chips in with its contribution to meet the cost of diesel incurred in fetching clay to anchor tree-roots tight to the ground.

"Pahari Mandir Committee bears the cost, and it will do so as long as his marathon goes on,’ said Ranchi sub-divisional officer (SDO) Dipankar Panda, Chairman of the committee.   

However, Daya’s task turns tough, when hurdles crop up to puncture its pace. His wife and children, scared to the bone for his past tiff with 'shady' sadhus forbid him to get closer to the temple. “Estranged by family, I had to leave for Delhi to do several odd jobs a few years ago. But, when I returned, ‘Baba’ beckoned to get me engrossed in saving trees,” he said. 

His lone mission that started off two months ago is turning into a mini movement only to suck masses slowly and surely. People now do their bits of 'kar seva' and fetch clay for trees. “Everybody should throw their lot with the noble cause he has taken up with determination," said Daya’s friend Bipin Singh.

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