Sundaram Verma, Indian Environmentalist

An Indian environmentalist, Sundaram Verma was awarded Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian award in 2020, for developing the agricultural technique called ‘dryland agroforestry’ which was developed to help tree plantation efforts in arid regions of India. Hailing from Danta village located in Sikar, Rajasthan, he pursued farming as a career post completing his graduation in 1972. He studied dryland farming at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi through Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK). After working for 10 years, Verma developed a farming technique for arid regions wherein all kind of trees can be planted with just one litre of water. To date, Verma has planted over 50,000 trees.