One of the most pernicious myths in our society is that an individual can’t make a difference – despite the many stories that prove it wrong. The Better India, which looks for and shares positive news stories from India, had one of those stories recently.

It is the story of a retired Indian civil servant who created a lush green forest near a remote village in a cold and arid desert region in the Upper Kinnaur region in Himachal Pradesh, more than 3,200 metres above sea level – where an expensive government program had been unable to achieve such results.