ALOK SAGAR :

• A person should become a role model in society. A  true inspiration for the youth.

He is that person who was The IIT professor who once taught Raghuram Rajan and has refused to accept the Padma award.

Alok Sagar, a former IIT professor, holds an engineering degree from IIT Delhi, a Masters’s degree, and a Ph.D. from the University of Houston. But he has spent the last 32 years living in isolated tribal communities in Madhya Pradesh, serving the people who live there. Alok has planted over 50,000 trees in the region and tries to assist the people at the grassroots level.

Dubbed a modern-day Gandhi, Sagar has been living in Kochamu in MP’s Betul district— a place that has no electricity or roads—for the past 26 years. For the uninitiated, Sagar shot to the limelight when it emerged that the man, whom authorities mistook as a sage, was a multifaceted personality with many distinctions to his name – including having taught former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan.

Besides possessing a graduate and master’s degree from IIT Delhi, Sagar has a Ph.D. from Houston University in Texas, US. He returned to India to become a professor at his alma mater where he served for a year. 

However, it later dawned upon him that he would be able to better contribute to the growth of the country by working on the grassroots level.

In 1982, Sagar resigned as a professor and began working with the tribals in Betul and Hoshangabad districts, helping save the environment — one tree at a time, according to Hindustan Times.

Based in Delhi’s Patparganj, Sagar’s father was an IRS officer (he passed away last year) while his mother was a physics teacher at Miranda House, Delhi University. His brother is a professor at IIT Delhi.

He has planted more than 50,000 trees in the Betul district. And in association with the Shramik Adiwasi Sangathan, Sagar works for the welfare of tribals. 

Alok can speak many languages and dialects used by tribals in the region. Closely associated with the Shramik Adiwasi Sangathan, he spends most of his time working for their upliftment.

“He is focused on nature and has been educating people on growing trees and taking care of the environment. He is a simple man who does what he says and means,” said Anurag Modi from Shramik Adiwasi Sangathan, who is closely associated with Alok.

Author: Master Vikrant RohinMaster Vikrant Rohin is an international author, and more than four countries’ schools are using his books in the core curriculum of education. He is the author of twenty different subject books. History, Economics, Chemistry, Physics, English, Biology, Geography etc. Most of his students hold high-ranking positions in the public and private sectors. He has cracked the world’s toughest exam, the "Civil Services Examination (UPSC)," eight times. Always a topper in academics, he was also a top-class sportsman, a state boxer, and a basketball player.