Peepal Baba

Some Lesser Known Facts About Peepal Baba

• Peepal Baba is an Indian environmentalist. He is the founder of Give Me Trees, which works for the conservation of plants and trees.

• He belongs to a Jain family. ^[5]Give Me Trees’ Official Website

  

• In childhood, his maternal grandmother Pushpa Amar used to teach him about the importance of plants and trees in human life. While he was studying in school, one day, one of his teachers’ said,
  

  One person should plant at least 20 trees, only then the damage to the environment can be reversed. I planted four neem trees initially, followed by six peepal trees.”

  

• His teacher’s words inspired him to do something for the welfare of the environment. On 26 January 1977, he planted his first tree on Range Hills Road at Kirkee Military Station, Pune, Maharashtra.

  

• Soon, planting trees & plants became his passion. A few years later, he decided that he would include more people with him for environment conservation for which he started a hobby club Give Me Trees. In the club, he used to ask his friends, family, and local people to plant a tree and water them regularly. Inspired by his work, people started joining his club. Later, the club was converted into a trust with more than 11,000 volunteers. Since then Give Me Trees has been working to plant more and more trees across India.

  

• The trust has also organised various awareness campaigns in schools, colleges, and public places to work for the welfare of the environment.

• Peepal Baba promoted organic farming to protect the land from becoming barren. As of 2022, his trust has planted more than 1.25 million plants and trees in different states of India which helped the trust in becoming one of the organisations to plant the maximum no. of trees. Some of the trees planted by the trust are Banyan, Pilkhan, Jamun, Mango, Neem, Sheesham, and Babool.

  

• Peepal Baba has also organised various yoga and meditation classes, and he has worked as a teacher in a few universities.

• He has travelled to various parts of India on his motorcycle. His collection of motorcycles includes a Royal Enfield motorcycle.

  

• Peepal Baba is a tea lover.

  

• He loves to read books in his leisure time.

• He is a dog lover, and he has shared various pictures of him with street dogs on his Facebook and Instagram accounts.

  

• As a guest speaker, Peepal Baba has appeared at various TEDx Talks events.

  

• In 1984, he started following asceticism under the guidance of Osho Rajneesh, an Indian spiritual leader. Later, he discarded the saffron. ^[6]Hindustan Times

• In one of his interviews, he said that people started calling him Peepal Baba after he started planting and preserving Peepal trees in large quantities. ^[7]Peepal Baba’s Official Website