Bengaluru, Nov. 15 -- Renowned environmentalist and Padma Shri awardee Saalumarada Thimmakka passed away at a private Bengaluru hospital on Friday at the age of 114. Thimmakka was being treated for prolonged illness until she passed away, her family said. Thimmakka was born on June 30, 1911, in Gubbi taluk in Tumakuru district. With no formal schooling and unable to have children, she began planting saplings with her husband Bikkala Chikkayya along a 4.5-km route on the State Highway 94 from Kudur to Hulikal in Bengaluru South district. Over 80 years, she reportedly planted and tended to 385 banyan trees and 8,000 other trees with the tenderness she said she would have given her own children. Her commitment eventually reshaped a stretch of ...