From migration to green cover: How one man convinced a village to plant its future

In Honnakiranagi village, Karnataka, summer once meant the same thing: heat, dust and departures. As temperatures rose, families packed for Bengaluru. Daily-wage construction work there paid more than their own land could. Back home, 1,600 acres lay barren after being cleared for a power plant that never came up.

What remained was an exposed stretch with fewer trees, fewer livelihoods, and little reason to stay. Sadashiva Hydra watched it all unfold. A daily wage labourer, he’d lost his father young and grown up in hardship. He’d struggled with alcohol and gambling before deciding to rebuild his life. Then he saw a possibility in MNREGA.

In 2015, Sadashiva convinced Honnakiranagi to try what many called impossible: plant one lakh saplings across the village.

Nature pushed back. A prolonged drought killed the first 20,000 saplings. Months of work, gone. But the villagers didn’t walk away. They planted again. What started as an afforestation drive became a shared mission. Instead of leaving for the city, people stayed to water, protect and watch trees grow on land that once stood empty.

For Honnakiranagi, the goal was never just about saplings. It was about creating a reason for families to remain home.