Shyam Sundar Paliwal
(Environmental Protection)
About Shyam Sundar Paliwal
- Shyam Sunder Paliwal, a former Piplantri village council head in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand.
- Paliwal has been awarded India’s fourth-highest civilian award in the social work category in 2021.
- The focus has been the girl child, water and trees, their protection and conservation.
Social Work
- He lost his daughter in 2006, he began a campaign in her memory of planting 111 saplings to celebrate the birth of every new-born girl.
- The panchayat opens a fixed bank deposit account in the name of the new-born as part of the campaign.
- The parents of the girls are supposed to nurture the saplings and also sign an affidavit saying they would not marry off their daughters before 18 or practice female foeticide.
- The Piplantri village has, as a result, survived Rajasthan’s chronic drought and water scarcity as a result of the campaign.
- The campaign has also involved building check dams on the pastures on nearby hills to recharge the groundwater level under Paliwal leadership and turned Rajsamand into an oasis full of trees.
