Ex-principal’s passion takes root, barren Madhya Pradesh hill turns plantation

JAMLI (MHOW): “Forest Man” Jadav Payeng toiled decades to single-handedly turn a once-barren Assam sandbar along the Brahmaputra into a lush 1,360-acre woodland. Over 2000km away, retired college principal SL Garg has pulled off in 10 years a feat with echoes of Payeng’s tenacity -- transforming a barren hillock in Madhya Pradesh’s Mhow into a 50,000-tree plantation.

“Rock star” is a flashy moniker that might sit uneasily on the assuming 75-year-old Indore resident who changed what was once merely a landscape of exposed rock with no water source, no shade and few signs anything worthwhile could survive on its forbidding slopes.

But Keshar Parvat, the hillock in Mhow’s Jamli village that embodies Garg’s passion, would not mind the praise. Olives from Spain, dragon fruits from Thailand, dates from Mexico, Latin American avocados, Mexican dates, saffron from Kashmir and medicinal species from across India grow side by side across the knoll’s 22 acres. This has attracted birds, pollinators and small wildlife.

Garg treated the hill as a living laboratory rather than a commercial orchard, testing whether plants from different climatic zones could adapt together. “Indore alone needs at least ten Keshar Parvats. If every city creates even one such forest, environmental conservation will no longer remain a discussion. It will become reality,” the ex-principal says.

Initially, however, the idea was not to build a forest. Garg recalls seeing the rocky hill while passing through the area in 2015. Farmers and village representatives urged him to purchase land. Pooling his savings and seeking support from his elder son who was then in the US, he acquired the hill for Rs 70 lakh.

Gradually, the quest to create a self-sustaining ecosystem took root. In 2016, Garg began planting saplings. The first year brought modest progress. But a fire in 2019 destroyed nearly 1,000 trees. Rather than abandon the project, Garg restarted the plantation drive and expanded it further.

The hill had no natural water source. For years, Garg purchased water from nearby villagers, spending nearly Rs 50,000 every month. Water was transported to the hill, stored in a man-made lake and distributed through a drip irrigation network.

Over time, however, something unexpected happened. As vegetation cover increased and the soil began retaining moisture, groundwater started reappearing. Borewells that once yielded nothing began showing water, offering proof that ecological restoration can gradually influence local hydrology.

Now, Keshar Parvat hosts more than 600 species of plants. Among the most unusual experiments is saffron cultivation. Determined to test whether the high-value crop could survive outside Kashmir, Garg’s team contacted Kashmir Agricultural University, which connected them with an experienced saffron farmer.

The farmer travelled to Keshar Parvat with saffron corms and trained workers. Black cotton soil was replaced with red soil that offered better drainage. Around 1,000 corms were planted. Garg even experimented using chilled water to mimic cooler Himalayan temperatures. The first season produced only 10 to 15 flowers. Later, the corms multiplied, generating over 1,000 additional plants and demonstrating saffron could adapt far from its traditional region.