Saalumarada Thimmakka

Through the Years

In 2019, Karnataka’s government altered road construction plans to avoid cutting down over 70-year-old banyan trees planted by Thimmakka, showing her influence on state infrastructure decisions.

Thimmakka and her husband fenced their saplings with thorny shrubs to protect them from grazing cattle, an agricultural challenge in rural Karnataka during the 1950s.

She was born in 1911 in a tiny village in the Kingdom of Mysore and worked as a casual laborer in a quarry before becoming an environmental icon.

Thimmakka’s work transformed a desolate highway in Karnataka into a verdant corridor, prompting local and state governments to protect and maintain the trees she planted. Her story inspired environmental organizations such as Thimmakka's Resources for Environmental Education in the U.S. and led to academic honors like an honorary doctorate from the Central University of Karnataka in 2020. The preservation of her banyan trees during road expansion plans set a precedent for integrating ecological concerns in infrastructure development in Karnataka.