We live in an age where environmental concerns are no longer distant possibilities but immediate realities. The urgency of the moment calls for collective action—from individuals to organisations—to restore sustainability and ecological balance.
The journey of Marimuthu Yoganathan, the winner of Times of India Ecopreneur Award,2025 is one such story which needs to be told. His journey is less about accolades and awards and more about endurance, conviction, and a lifetime of service. Often referred to as the “Tree Man” Yoganathan is not a full-time activist or an environment crusader. He drives a bus for the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation in Coimbatore.
For years, he’s juggled his work with a remarkable environmental crusade, demonstrating that real progress often starts with a single person, not a bureaucracy.His story started in 1987. As a student, he saw massive illegal tree cutting in the Nilgiris. Upset by what he saw, he initially tried writing to the people in charge. When that didn’t work, he took action himself, famously laying down in front of a timber truck.
That act brought him violence, but it also got people talking. What began as a lone act of resistance gradually evolved into a people’s movement, contributing to a halt in tree felling in the region.Yet, the defining shift in his work came afterward. Yoganathan realised that protest alone was not enough—awareness had to be built from the ground up. Every Monday, he started visiting schools, using straightforward slide shows to break down environmental systems: the mechanics of air, water, and rainfall, and how we humans throw a wrench in the works.
Over the years, he’s touched thousands of schools, bringing environmental education right to the students and the communities they live in.But he didn’t stop at education. He got his hands dirty, too. For three decades now, he’s been planting trees, more than three hundred thousand of them, often footing the bill himself. In a stroke of ingenuity, he also hands out free saplings to bus riders when they purchase their tickets, transforming a routine exchange into an opportunity for positive change.His efforts go beyond planting trees; they aim to create participation. By encouraging students and citizens to plant and care for saplings themselves, he has transformed environmentalism from an abstract idea into a shared responsibility.Over time, his work has gained recognition. He has been recognized with several accolades, such as the Eco Warrior Award, and has earned praise at the national level. Furthermore, his grassroots work gained significant visibility when Narendra Modi mentioned him during Mann Ki Baat.Yet, recognition has never been the driving force behind his work—it has simply followed it.His path has, of course, been punctuated by personal trials. Even after a lung cancer diagnosis in 2023 and the subsequent removal of a lung, Yoganathan persists. Following his retirement, he’s opted to devote even more energy to environmental advocacy and tree planting, a testament to a dedication that transcends his circumstances.The Times of India Ecopreneur Award, for instance, becomes something more than just a trophy. It’s a way to get noticed. Projects that start small, and keep going for years, can easily be overlooked. When they get recognized, the stories get told, and people see the value in sticking with it, even when the world seems to want quick results.
More importantly, such awards serve as catalysts. They encourage replication—reminding people that change does not require extraordinary resources, only consistent effort.
The recognition of individuals such as Yoganathan is important because it emphasises on the fact that environmental stewardship transcends the purview of governmental entities and advocacy organizations. This perspective further implies that active participation is accessible to all, contingent upon a commitment to practical application.His analysis ultimately challenges a common assumption: that significant change requires large-scale or systemic action. In contrast, it shows that transformation can begin small, developing over time through consistent effort. In recognising Marimuthu Yoganathan, the spotlight is not just on one individual, but on an idea: that sustained, everyday action still holds the power to shape a better future.Nominations for the TOI Ecopreneur Awards are now open. Individuals and organizations can submit their entries HERE
