Welcome to the Evolving Man Project’s “Evolved Man of the Week” profile. Each week we will highlight an individual that embodies what it means to be an evolved person, famous and non-famous individual alike. The world needs to know their stories and deeds. This week’s honor goes to the founder of Mangalore Green Brigade, Jeeth Milan Roche.
After leaving his IT job, Jeet Milan Roche from Kudla, India. He started greening city parks, growing food forests, and saving trees destined for the chop in the Indian city of Mangaluru. Describing his former office life as depressing, Jeeth Milan Roche was so energized by the tree planting that he took on the task of greening an infamous landfill where the stench was so foul it was driving people from their homes.
In August 2019, panic ensued in the area when local villagers were forced to vacate their homes as garbage from the dump yard began flowing through their homes due to the heavy rains. Meanwhile, the principal of a nearby school had expressed how this catastrophe had impacted students. Sagaya Selvi spoke of how people were suffering from this dumping yard, adding, “Don’t we have the right to live here or breathe fresh air? Three thousand students live in the area. Circumstances like these are forcing the locals to live like animals.”
Since then, efforts have been made to clear out the waste. But the dump yard continued to symbolize despair against the backdrop of the city’s evolving beauty. But Jeeth decided to change this reality. In 2020, he planted 1,570 saplings at the Pachanady dumping ground. The idea was for the area to be filled with green cover, including teakwood, rosewood, banyan, fig, peepal trees, and more, to combat the foul smell that locals constantly had to bear.
The forty-eight-year-old Jeeth Milan Roche, in his own words about the healing power of nature:
“I simply started to get out of my depression, and to date, I haven’t stopped,” … “I plant trees everywhere! If you ask me the strangest place, I would say the cemetery. I visit cemeteries of all religions and have planted trees in over 23 of them. I plant 12,000 trees in Mangaluru every year.”
Jeeth Milan Roche is determined to make Mangaluru a “Green City” by sacrificing his time and energy to improve the environment. The well-being of humanity, the environment, and the functioning of the economy, ultimately depend upon the responsible management of the planet’s natural resources. Every Action Counts- Everyone should realize the responsibility to care for the Earth and to become agents of change, just like Jeeth Roche. Like Jeeth Milan Roche, everyone should do something positive for the environment, galvanizing individual actions into a collective power that generates an exponential positive impact on the planet.
We at the Evolving Man Project wish Jeeth Milan Roche and the Mangalore Green Brigade continued success in making the world greener and the air cleaner with his forest initiative. Jeeth’s actions prove that any individual can make a difference in creating a better world, no matter how big or small that action happens. Today we honor Jeeth Milan Roche as our Evolved Man of the Week.
Evolving Folks Project 