New Delhi, March 7 -- Mohan Hirabai Hiralal breathed his last on January 23, 2025. He had turned 75 just 23 days ago not a ripe old age by the current standards - certainly not for Mohan with his robust physique, health awareness and lack of debilitating habits or addictions. Yet it was a quirk of fate that he, who was constantly on the move, had to be confined to home for over two years and to his bed for almost a month. It was agonising to find him with oxygen tubes in his nostrils or an oxygen mask over his face, struggling for oxygen as he tried to talk or even make a slight movement. At last, Providence freed him from this torment.

Born at Chandrapur, a town not far from the Dandakaranya forests, Mohan developed a love for forests a...