[4][5][6] Tulsi Gowda was born into the Halakki tribal family within the Honnalli village, a settlement transitioning between rural and urban within the Uttara Kannada district in the Indian state of Karnataka.

Tulsi Gowda was born into an impoverished family, and her father died when she was 2 years old, so she had to work alongside her mother as a day labourer at a local nursery once she was old enough.

During her time at the nursery, she contributed and worked directly on the afforestation efforts of the forest department by using traditional knowledge of the land.

It describes its aim as reconnecting communities and villages with nature, working towards a future where one-third of the area of the state has forest or tree cover.

It is a difficult process as the seeds must be collected at the peak of germination from the mother tree in order to ensure the survival of the seedlings and Gowda was able to work out this exact time.

[12] Although Gowda had retired from the Karnataka Forestry Department, she continued to teach the children of her village about the importance of the forest as well as how to find and care for seeds.

When another Halakki woman was threatened with a gun after an altercation, Gowda came to her aid stating that she will "protest fiercely if the perpetrator of the crime isn't punished.

The IPVM award recognizes pioneering contributions made by individuals or institutions to afforestation and wasteland development.