At 91, Kerala’s ‘Vanamuthassi’ turns 5 acres of sandy land into a forest with over 3,000 trees
Alappuzha: For decades, Devaki Amma’s life revolved around paddy fields in Muthukulam, Alappuzha. Farming was her rhythm, done alongside husband Gopalakrishna Pillai, a retired headmaster.
That changed at age 46, when a car accident left her with severe injuries. Doctors advised nearly three years of rest, keeping her away from the fields. Confined to home, she planted a single sapling on the sandy plot near her house — land earlier used only for post-harvest work. One became two, then many.
That habit never stopped. Over more than four decades, friends, relatives and family joined in. The sandy plot grew into Thapovanam, a nearly 5-acre forest on coastal soil once thought unfit for trees.
With no formal training, Devaki Amma improved the land using mulching, leaf litter and manure from home-reared cattle instead of chemical fertilisers. As monsoon patterns shifted, the family adapted techniques to prevent waterlogging. Two ponds inside Thapovanam never run dry, aiding groundwater recharge and keeping seawater intrusion at bay. The forest even shelters a 200-year-old Indian bael tree.
Alappuzha is Kerala’s only district without natural forest cover, making Thapovanam more significant. It now holds over 3,000 recorded trees, plants, shrubs and creepers, including rare and medicinal species. Peacocks, owls, emerald doves, migratory birds and butterflies have made it home.
Her daughter Thankamani, now head of the Environmental Engineering department at a Thiruvananthapuram college, grew up watching the work and now cares for her mother full-time. The rest of the family continues to maintain the forest.
Long before national fame, Devaki Amma received the Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra Award in 2003 and Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2018. Former President Ram Nath Kovind also mentioned her in a Republic Day address.
This year, at 91, she was honoured with the Padma Shri in the ‘Unsung Heroes’ category — the only recipient from Kerala. Known across the state as ‘Vanamuthassi’ or ‘grandmother of forests’, she now hosts students, researchers and nature enthusiasts at Thapovanam and regularly gives away seeds and saplings to schools and households.
