What Began as a 'Tree Orphanage' Has Grown Into a Forest of 2,000 Trees & 500+ Guardians

In Santiniketan, where the red earth glows beneath century-old shade, and Rabindranath Tagore's vision of learning under trees still lingers, 29-year-old Somnath Ghosh is nurturing something both practical and poetic — a home for trees that people plant and then forget.

His Brikkho Foundation calls itself India's first "Orphanage Home for Trees." The phrase sounds metaphorical until Ghosh explains what it means.

A tree, he says, becomes orphaned in two ways: when it is cut without thought, and when it is planted ceremonially, only to be abandoned once the photographs are taken.

For Ghosh, every tree deserves more than a plantation drive. It deserves a guardian.

"If society has homes for orphaned children," he asks, "why can it not have a system of guardianship for neglected trees?"

For him, Brikkho is that family — one that plants, nurtures, monitors and protects. The goal is not simply to increase the number of trees, but to build lasting relationships between people and nature.

A dream that grew from the forest

That relationship did not begin with Brikkho.

It began years earlier, with a difficult choice.

Ghosh had painstakingly built a multimedia studio, assembling cameras, drones and editing systems piece by piece. It represented years of hard work and financial struggle.

But another calling kept growing louder.

"If I do not act right now, there is absolutely no guarantee I will be able to do it in the future," he recalls.

His love for plants and animals had taken root in childhood. Later, while working on an assignment with the Burdwan Forest Department, that quiet affection became something far more urgent.

Living inside the forest changed him.

He also noticed something else.

Many people genuinely wanted to plant trees, but very few knew how to ensure those saplings survived. The enthusiasm was there. The support system was not.

That gap would eventually become Brikkho Foundation.

A turning point during the pandemic

Like many life-changing journeys, his gathered momentum during the COVID-19 lockdown.

In Santiniketan, Ghosh and a group of volunteers formed Helping Hands.

For 150 consecutive days, they fed stray dogs left hungry after tea stalls and eateries shut down. They delivered medicines to elderly residents, spread awareness about masks, and later carried relief materials to the Sundarbans after Cyclone Amphan.

The work extended far beyond environmental conservation.

"The emotional and spiritual nourishment I received during that period reshaped who I am," he says. "It amplified my desire to dedicate myself completely to this cause."

That experience strengthened his belief that caring for nature could never be separated from caring for people.

Planting is only the beginning

When Brikkho Foundation was formally established, Ghosh wanted to solve a problem that had long bothered him.

Too often, tree plantation ended the moment a sapling entered the ground.

For him, that was where the real work should begin.

Today, Brikkho's adoption model brings together the digital and physical worlds.

People can adopt a native tree through Brikkho Foundation for a one-time contribution of Rs 600.

People can adopt native tree species online, while the Foundation plants them in clusters, currently focusing on the Sonajhuri forest — a landscape named after the Acacia auriculiformis, where golden blossoms fall like drops of gold.

The trees are planted on land provided by the Forest Department as well as on land voluntarily made available by local farmers for afforestation.

The Foundation continues caring for each sapling through regular audits, soil preparation before the monsoon, fencing repairs, and organic inputs until the trees can thrive independently. Each adopted tree is monitored and maintained for three years, ensuring its survival and healthy growth until it becomes self-sustaining.

So far, it has planted more than 2,000 trees, maintaining a 95 percent survival rate. Brikkho Foundation has been actively working since 2021, and these nearly 2,000 trees have been planted between 2021 and 2026. Around 500–600 individuals have adopted trees through the programme. As the plantations are spread across multiple locations, the Foundation does not attribute them to a single acreage.

Many adopters plant trees in memory of loved ones and return years later to watch them grow.

"I adopted a Mahogany tree on my birthday in January 2022 by paying a one-time fee. Four years have passed since then, and the tree has now become an adult. I received a certificate for the adoption, which I’ve framed on the wall of my home in Kolkata, and I still get regular updates from the Brikkho Foundation about its progress," says Prosun Chanda, 27, who works for a Kolkata-based media outlet.

To strengthen accountability, Brikkho has also developed a "Track My Plant" feature that allows adopters to follow each tree through geo-tagged photographs and regular updates. In addition, every adopter receives a Green Hero Certificate, the geo-tagged location of the adopted tree, online tracking through Brikkho's website, and periodic plantation updates.

Ghosh says the feature addresses one of the biggest shortcomings of large plantation drives.

Too often, nobody knows what happens after the planting ceremony ends.

Today, many of Brikkho's adopters come from metropolitan cities, the Bengali diaspora, and Indian communities living overseas.

Building forests, not plantations

For Ghosh, success is measured not by the number of trees planted but by the kind of forest they become.

Brikkho deliberately avoids monoculture plantations.

Instead, it creates layered ecosystems using Neem, Shal, Kadam, Banyan, Peepal and native shrubs that support birds, insects and microorganisms.

Resilience, he believes, lies in diversity.

"A forest of 10,000 trees is beautiful," he says, "but it becomes revolutionary when it is built by 10,000 conscious individuals who each own a piece of its heartbeat."

For him, the smallest unit of change is not an acre of land.

It is one person connected to one living tree.

The Foundation's forest land lies in the Kankalitala area of Bolpur, where adopted trees continue to take root and grow. Its work has also received formal recognition and approval from the Forest Department of the Government of India.

From forests to rivers

As the Foundation grew, so did its mission.

Through Mission Clean Santiniketan, attention shifted to the Kopai River viewpoint — a distributary of the Ganges celebrated in Tagore's writings but increasingly choked by plastic waste.

For an entire year, volunteers cleaned the stretch every weekend. The Kopai River Clean-up Campaign was carried out continuously for approximately seven months, during which volunteers collected waste in large garbage bags over nearly 120–150 clean-up days.

Today, in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India, the initiative is working to restore the river through better waste management, including dustbins, collection systems and recycling.

Similar clean-up drives have also been carried out in the Sonajhuri forest and around the Kanch Mandir.

On humid afternoons, volunteers bend to collect plastic wrappers left behind by tourists, filling sacks with discarded bottles and fishing lines that clog the river.

The work doesn't stop there.

They also visit tribal hamlets on the forest's edge, listening to elders speak about seed preservation and traditional farming practices. In return, they share practical knowledge on organic composting and crop rotation, creating an exchange where indigenous wisdom and modern methods complement each other.

Beyond these efforts, Brikkho Foundation has conducted environmental awareness programmes across 10 villages and carried out plantation activities in five to six villages around Santiniketan.

Caring for people alongside nature

That same philosophy shapes the Foundation's community work.

Santiniketan's cultural landscape is woven together by Bengali traditions and tribal heritage.

Through the Share Happiness Programme, food is distributed across villages in Birbhum district, including Beldanga, Baduriya, Dunaipur, Saheb Danga and Amradanga.

Some villages are predominantly Adivasi, while others are more diverse, but together they reflect the communities that surround Santiniketan.

Since the programme began, Brikkho Foundation has distributed more than 5,000 food packets to beneficiaries across these communities.

For volunteers, however, the most memorable moments are often the simplest.

Children waiting eagerly for food packets.

Elders sharing folk songs while receiving medicines.

The initiative reflects Ghosh's belief that ecological restoration and social care cannot exist separately.

Looking towards 2050

The sight of Santiniketan's century-old trees slowly disappearing due to age, storms and neglect inspired another long-term vision.

Mission Green Santiniketan 2050 asks a simple question:

If today's giants disappear, what will replace them?

Its answer is equally simple.

Plant now so that twenty years from today, another canopy is already waiting.

The mission hopes to create not only greener landscapes but also a cooler microclimate, healthier public spaces and continuity with Tagore's vision of Santiniketan.

Like many grassroots movements, Brikkho's greatest challenge remains funding.

Saplings themselves are affordable.

Protecting them is not.

Fencing, maintenance, labour and long-term monitoring all require sustained financial support.

Ghosh began the Foundation largely through self-funding. Even today, the initiative is primarily self-funded by Somnath Ghosh, with additional support coming through tree adoption contributions, individual donations and donations received specifically for food distribution drives.

The Rs 600 adoption contribution covers the complete cost of planting, protecting, monitoring and maintaining a tree for three years, by which time it generally becomes self-sustaining.

The Foundation's biggest recurring expenses include tree maintenance and monitoring, fencing and protection, sapling preparation and plantation, website maintenance, office operations, and travel and transportation for plantation monitoring and the movement of saplings.

As it grows, crowdfunding and public support have become increasingly important.

Yet he continues to draw strength from Tagore's Ekla Cholo Re — walk alone if you must.

Today, around 50 volunteers — students, plantation experts, retired officers and schoolteachers — stand beside him.

As Arup Kumar Thandar, District Coordinator, West Bengal Biodiversity Board, says:

"What is remarkable about the Foundation is that its volunteers go far beyond planting or adopting trees. They take on the less glamorous tasks too — clearing forest floors, cleaning rivers and walking into tribal hamlets to learn from traditional wisdom."

When people tell Ghosh that one person, or even one tree, cannot make much difference, he smiles.

The ocean, he says, is formed drop by drop.

"I dream of a future when Santiniketan's sons and daughters—and admirers of Tagore's vision and poetry across the world—will join hands to make this abode of learning greener. Their contributions will not only sustain our movement but also renew the timeless bond between knowledge and nature."

Source: The Better India