This Man Turned His Entire Ancestral Land Into a 70-Acre Forest With 5 Crore Trees  & 13 Ponds

3 June 2025

In a village in Telangana lies a 70-acre man-made forest teeming with 5 crore fruit-bearing trees and 13 ponds -- created single-handedly by a man devoted to nature.

It began when Dusharla Satyanarayana was just 4-YO kid scattering tamarind seeds across dry land. What followed was a childhood spent around many birds and animals.

Forming a deep bond with the biodiversity around him, a young Dusharla pledged to use his ancestral land to create a thriving ecosystem.

Travelling far and wide, he began collecting seeds and saplings of native forest species. He then dug a canal to harvest rainwater and channelise it to irrigate the plants.

He built ponds where lotus, fish, frogs and tortoises live in abundance, spending all his savings to create and maintain the forest.

Decades later, this 70-acre forest is home to lakhs of fruit-bearing trees, hundreds of bird species and countless animals—peacocks, snakes, rabbits, foxes, wild boars, deer.

None of it is for sale. "Not a single fruit goes out for human use." Everything grown here feeds wildlife. The rest decomposes and nourishes the soil.

Dusharla has been offered ₹100 crore by real estate developers. He has said no to them and even relatives. "Even my children are not heirs to the land', he says.

Because to him, this isn’t property, it’s purpose. "If a 50-year-old tree adds ₹1.5 crore in value to Earth, mine is worth thousands of crores. And it's all for Earth."