Teaching the world
In his 30-year teaching career, Joginath Sahoo has seen more trees in his life than students. When he enters his classroom in Kesharpur village in Orissa's Nayagarh district, his students' shout in unison, " Gachha bina ...' (without trees). And he completes the sentence for them, "... jeevana nahi '(no life).
Fondly called Shramik Jogi, literally meaning worshipper of labour, he "dreams, breathes and lives trees'. In Nayagarh district, he is credited with starting the community forest protection movement. "As a child, too, he used to ask us to protect the forest,' his fellow villagers recall.
He started the famous thengapalli method of forest protection. "The stick rotation was a symbolic replacement for the axe or other weapons,' he says.
Jogi has inspired a generation of teachers in his district to take up forest protection measures in their respective villages. He got the ultimate recognition when the education department of Hampshire County, the UK, invited him to release the book on Kesharpur's initiative as a part of their school curriculum. Say proud villagers, "Our Shramik now teaches the world.'
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