But Amte never wanted to be lost for eternity. So, he had wished a burial instead of cremation by fire and a sapling to be planted at the spot, so he could be reborn as a tree. “That was Baba's concept of memory garden,” says elder son Vikas. “He wanted every bit of his body to be useful to micro-organisms after his death. Cremation by fire, he thought, was environmentally damaging,” he added.

Decades ago, Amte had laid the foundation for India’s environmental movement when he had fought a valiant and successful battle against the proposed Inchampalli-Bhopalpattnam dam across Godavari on the border of Gadchiroli district and had prevented a pristine forest and lakhs of trees from being destroyed.

Today, he had sought to become a tree himself. Years later, when Medha Patkar launched her Narmada Bachao Andolan against Sardar Sarovar Project, Amte had teamed up with her and had spent 11 years of his life as a recluse on the banks of Narmada. And when he was being bid farewell, wife Sadhanatai watched in grim silence. She was the one to be always with him through thick and thin.

“We have no regrets. He had lived his life to the fullest and did the noblest possible he could. Yet, it would be hard to come to terms with his death,” said granddaughter Sheetal.

None would. After all, it's the death of a man with a never-say-die spirit.