Saalumarada Thimmakka – Indian Environmentalist

At the age of 105, Saalumarada Thimmakka is still tending her many trees, a project that began a long time ago in response to the social ridicule she suffered when she discovered she couldn’t have kids. Over the years, she has planted over 8,000 trees in about 80 years.

Thimmakka is from the village of Hulikal located in the Magadi Taluk of the Ramanagar district of Karnataka, India. She never when to school and worked as a laborer at a quarry for many years. Saalumarada married another laborer but couldn’t have children.

In response to a childless home, she started to plant many banyan trees along the highway from Kudur to Hulikal. Thimmakka has even been honored for her work with a National Citizen’s Award of India. In 2016, she was also named one of the 100 most influential women in the world by BBC News.

In fact, there is an environmental organization in the United States that is named after her in Oakland and Los Angeles. The organization was called Thimmakka Resources for Environmental Education.

Saalumarada is the name given to her by others and is not her real given name. The phrase Saalumarada means “banyan trees” or “of the row of trees” in the Kannada language, and was used to refer to her because of her work. Her given name is Thimma and the -akka is added as she is the elder sister and is used to show respect, as well as, indicates she has no children.