Grandma, 91, Spends Years Planting Trees Alone and Turned Her Backyard Into a Big Five-Acre Forest

After her marriage, she looked after the paddy fields like other women of the family, while her husband worked in a teaching job. On an ill-starred day in 1980, a tragedy struck her from nowhere and jolted her into a paralytic circumstance that crushed all her dreams. An unfortunate car crash left her bedridden, stealing the life from her legs. Doctors told her she could no longer work in the paddy fields.

Fast forward to 2025, the 91-year-old Amma is just as raw and wild when it comes to her life mission. She wakes up each day and walks into the five-acre forest garden she created while hindered from working in the paddy fields. Her unflinching love for nature inspired her to transform her backyard into this paradisiacal forest that is pummelled by the backwater currents of Kerala and flanked by the groves of coconut trees peppered throughout, reports The Better India.

After her accident, Amma’s husband, Gopalakrishna Pillai, brought her new seeds each day. Being an ardent lover of nature himself, he plunged entirely in supporting his wife’s dreams. His enthusiasm was so that even after he passed away, Amma continued her gardening mission, dedicating five decades of her life to it, stopping only to eat meals and behold the magic of nature. Eventually, people started calling her “The woman who gave birth to a forest.”

Named “Kollakal Thapovanam” in her native language, Amma’s garden is a forested jewel tucked within the bosoms of her house in the South Indian city of Kerala. The enchanting five-acre forest garden nestles in the heart of her private property situated in the Onattukara region in the Alappuzha district. The forest sprawls with lush thickets of trees, shrubs, flowers, and creepers, all of which were planted single-handedly by the granny.

Coppices of wild teak, musk, star, krishnanal, mahogany, medicinal herbs, tubers, mango, tamarind, bamboo, pine, and over three thousand exotic varieties line the trails of her forest. Wild animals like monkeys and peacocks stroll through these trails, often catching a bite of mango or some other fruit. She also receives bird guests like paradise flycatchers, emerald doves, Amur falcons, bluethroats, black-winged stilts, and others who dip their beaks in her little ponds and wetlands to quench their thirst.

“Instead of restricting birds and animals by putting nets, I have made water and nest provisions for them. As a result, you can see peacocks, monkeys, and exotic birds in the forest,” she told The Better India. What’s most enticing about her garden is her single-handed effort that is driven by the fundamental chemistry of nature. All the manure she uses comes from her cows, buffalo, and oxen. The water supply is derived from rainwater conservation.

As word spread, Amma’s forestry initiative caught the attention of the Union government, which awarded her with the Indira Gandhi Vrikshamithra award in 2002 and the Nari Shakti Puruskar in 2018, recognizing her as a symbol of environmental stewardship. A year later, on March 8, 2019, then President Ram Nath Kovind presented her with the award during an event held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.