Kollakkayil Devaki Amma (born ) is an Indian woman who began to grow a forest after a car accident prevented her from farming. The forest now covers 4.5 acres and has over 3,000 trees. She has received several awards for her work, including the

Nari Shakti Puraskar The Nari Shakti Puraskar is an annual award given by the Ministry of Women and Child Development of the Government of India to individual women or to institutions that work towards the cause of women empowerment. It is the highest civilian hono ...

Early life

Devaki Amma was born in

Muthukulam Muthukulam is backwater village near Haripad in Alappuzha district in the Indian state of Kerala. Demographics India Census, Muthukulam had a population of 20,740 with 9,474 males and 11,266 females. Population of Children with age of 0- ...

in Alappuzha district,

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

. A love of horticulture was inspired by her grandfather. She married Gopalakrishna Pillai, who was a in teacher, and worked in the

paddy field A paddy field is a flooded field (agriculture), field of arable land used for growing Aquatic plant, semiaquatic crops, most notably rice and taro. It originates from the Neolithic rice-farming cultures of the Yangtze River basin in sout ...

s growing rice. In 1980, Devaki Amma was involved in a serious car accident, which left her bed-ridden for three years.

Forest

After she recovered from the accident, Devaki Amma was unable to work in the paddy fields so she began to plant trees in her back garden. Over time this project developed into a 4.5 acre forest. It contains over 3,000 trees, including krishnanal,

mahogany Mahogany is a straight-grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Unive ...

mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree ''Mangifera indica''. It is believed to have originated in the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South a ...

, musk,

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

, star and

tamarind Tamarind (''Tamarindus indica'') is a Legume, leguminous tree bearing edible fruit that is probably indigenous to tropical Africa. The genus ''Tamarindus'' is monotypic taxon, monotypic, meaning that it contains only this species. It belongs ...

. There are also rare plants and the wood attracts birds such as

Amur falcon The Amur falcon (''Falco amurensis'') is a small raptor of the falcon family. It breeds in south-eastern Siberia and Northern China before migrating in large flocks across India and over the Arabian Sea to winter in Southern and East Africa. ...

bluethroat The bluethroat (''Luscinia svecica'') is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae. It, and similar small Europea ...

black-winged stilt The black-winged stilt (''Himantopus himantopus'') is a widely distributed very long-legged wader in the avocet and stilt family (Recurvirostridae). The scientific name ''H. himantopus'' is sometimes applied to a single, almost cosmopolitan speci ...

paradise flycatcher The paradise flycatchers (''Terpsiphone'') are a genus of birds in the family Monarchidae. The genus ranges across Africa and Asia, as well as a number of islands. A few species are migratory, but the majority are resident. The most telling char ...

s and

emerald dove The common emerald dove (''Chalcophaps indica''), also called Asian emerald dove and grey-capped emerald dove, is a widespread resident breeding pigeon native to the tropical and subtropical parts of the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. ...

s. Devaki Amma worked for over thirty five years on the forest mostly on her own, using cows, buffalo and oxen, and harvesting rainwater.

Awards

Devaki Amma was given the Social Forestry Award by the Alappuzha district and the Bhumitra Puruskar by Vijnana Bharati. The state of Kerala bestowed upon her the Hari Vyakti Puruskar. On the national level she has received the Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra award and the

. The latter was given to her by the

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...

Ram Nath Kovind Ram Nath Kovind (; born 1 October 1945) is an Indian politician who served as the 14th President of India from 2017 to 2022. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is the second person after K. R. Narayanan, from the Dalit community ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amma, Kollakkayil Devaki 1930s births Living people Indian horticulturists Indian foresters Nari Shakti Puraskar 2018 winners People from Alappuzha district Women from Kerala Women in forestry