Father and Daughter Plant 70,000 Trees Over 35 Years

While Uttarakhand burned this winter, a forest in Himachal Pradesh stood green and thriving because one family refused to wait for someone else to act.

For 35 years, Kishan Lal invested nearly one-fourth of his income into buying saplings. He planted them steadily in Batahar forest, trusting that time and care would accomplish what policy debates could not.

His daughter Kalpana grew up alongside this quiet revolution. From age three, she tied rakhi threads around the trees her father planted, treating them not as environmental projects but as family members worth protecting.

Together, they planted 70,000 saplings. The forest returned root by root, leaf by leaf, until a complete ecosystem stood where degradation once dominated.

This winter showed exactly why their work matters. Uttarakhand reported 1,600 forest fires during a season that should have brought snow and rest. Instead, ash floated through air that once carried snowflakes, settling on roofs where winter white should have been.

The pattern extends across the Himalayas. Kashmir recorded 40 percent less snowfall this winter, while Ladakh saw nearly 70 percent less. In some areas, farmers were filmed physically transporting snow to apple orchards, desperately trying to save crops that depend on winter cold.

Scientists call this a snow drought. The phrase sounds technical until you realize snow is not decoration but storage, feeding glaciers slowly and regulating rivers that millions depend on downstream.

When forests disappear, mountains lose their ability to cool themselves. Winters grow warmer, snowfall windows shrink, and the water that should flow steadily through summer vanishes when it's needed most.

The Ripple Effect

Kishan Lal and Kalpana's forest proves regeneration is possible when care becomes consistent. Their 35-year commitment earned them Bhutan's Green Man Award, but the real achievement stands rooted in the ground.

Their restored forest now supports wildlife, stabilizes soil, and holds moisture that protects against fire. One family created an ecosystem that benefits everyone downstream, showing how individual action can scale when sustained over decades.

Their story also highlights what the Himalayas need now. Forests require protection at scale, construction needs restraint, and development must account for the land it reshapes.

The mountains are responding exactly as ecosystems do when pushed beyond balance, with fire, absence, and unpredictability serving as clear signals. Kishan Lal and Kalpana listened to those signals three decades before they became crisis headlines, and their forest stands as living proof that it's never too early to start caring.