Every plantation drive in India follows a familiar script. Officials arrive with saplings, photographers capture the ceremonial digging, and banners announce yet another green milestone. 

Then everyone leaves, and the young trees are left to fend for themselves against heat, traffic dust, and stray cattle. Most do not survive the first year.

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Gopal, a potter from Uttar Pradesh, noticed this pattern long before it became a talking point. Instead of adding to the pile of saplings planted along roads every season, he decided to look after the ones already struggling to grow. 

For the last 12 years, he has spent his time, money, and energy watering roadside trees near his home in Banaras, a routine that has quietly earned him the name "Oxygen Baba."

From clay to compassion

Gopal earns his living shaping earthen pots, a craft that ties him closely to soil and water. That everyday familiarity with the earth seems to have shaped his instinct to nurture rather than simply........

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