Kollakkayil Devaki Amma, a retired schoolteacher from Muthukulam, Alappuzha district, Kerala, turned personal adversity into a lifelong mission of environmental healing. After a car accident left her bedridden for years, she found strength in nurturing plants and what began as therapy soon grew into a forest spanning 4.5 acres.
Over 35 years, without any external funding or labor, Devaki Amma planted and cared for more than 3,000 trees, including rare and native species. Her forest now functions as a self-sustaining ecosystem with birds, butterflies, and medicinal plants, and serves as a model for individual-led ecological restoration.