92-Year-Old Builds Free Medicinal Forest After Accident

When a terrible accident 44 years ago left Devaki Amma unable to walk without a cane, she lost more than her mobility. The 92-year-old from Alappuzha, Kerala, watched her family's paddy farming livelihood disappear along with her physical strength.

But instead of surrendering to despair, she picked up a sapling. Then another. And another.

What started as one woman's quiet act of healing has transformed into Tapovanam, a thriving five-acre forest that now provides free medicinal plants to her entire community. Devaki Amma planted every single tree by hand on what was once barren, sandy land near the backwaters.

The forest took decades to build. Devaki Amma made planting her daily ritual, nurturing each sapling like a child as she slowly regained her ability to walk independently. The white sandy soil around her ancestral home gradually disappeared under a canopy of green.

Today, Tapovanam bursts with life. Rare calabash trees stand alongside peacock plants with feather-patterned leaves. Fig trees, jackfruit, mango, and wild berries create a dense ecosystem that supports fish-filled ponds and attracts eagles overhead.

People visit daily to harvest what they need. Someone seeking relief from a cough can identify and take home the right medicinal plant. A neighbor needing treatment for an injury can gather healing leaves. Everything grows freely, and everything is given freely.

Devaki Amma refuses payment for the plants. She believes nature's gifts should never become business transactions. When visitors insist on leaving money out of guilt or superstition, she reluctantly accepts, but her satisfaction comes from something deeper than currency.

Sunny's Take

In a world obsessed with quick fixes and profit margins, a 92-year-old woman proves that the most powerful medicine grows from patience and generosity. Devaki Amma didn't just plant trees after her accident. She planted hope in soil where despair could have taken root instead.

Her forest stands as living proof that our darkest moments can become the seeds of something beautiful. Every person who walks through Tapovanam carrying medicinal plants carries a piece of her story too: when life strips away what you know, you can still choose to grow something that heals others.

The forest that saved one woman now saves countless others, one free plant at a time.