A good Sunday morning..!

This Sunday, we went on a plantation drive with ‘Hariyali’ in Mumbai. Just had a noble thought of spending the Sunday morning volunteering than snoozing inside that warm ’n’ cozy blanket. So, like all of our other OTSPs (On the Spot Plans) :), this one was cooked on our dinner plates on Saturday. While the canvass was ready in the form of an ongoing plantation programme by Hariyali at Bhavale Forest land, off NH-3, near Bhiwandi, we just had to help with our bit of green colour..!

We started for Kalyan on early Sunday morning, glad to see the less crowded train..! When we, full of the familiar gusto, reached the site, it was stunning to see ourselves joining a pool of another 300 volunteers (Mahindra & Mahindra employees and other Hariyali volunteers)..! About 2,000 odd healthy saplings at the base were waving their greens to us. These were to be transported to the top and various other parts of the hills. While half of the team carried some of the plants to the top, the rest formed a human chain. It was overwhelming to see so many people, bustling with enthusiasm, passing the saplings and actually planting them. Recalled the good ol’ story of ‘human spirit’ holding true..!

Hariyali’s plantation drive, to be carried out over two months (June and July), is underway at Bhavale. The plot of land, 25 km from Thane, measures about 25 acres. Till last Sunday (13th July, 2008) ~9,000 saplings of various species of native, forest-friendly plants have been planted to cover about 2-3 barren hills in this area. That’s awesome, literally..! And just take a note of the target – A whopping 25,000 trees at this site during the current monsoon. All these plants have been sponsored by Kandivali Plant of Mahindra & Mahindra ltd, and supplied from their Plant at Nashik.

Hariyali is a Thane based NGO working towards protection and upgradation of environmental conditions in and around Mumbai. Hariyali, has to its credit, a plantation of massive number of trees across barren hills in the Yeoor range of Sanjay Gandhi National Park and a number of other sites around Thane and Powai area since 1996. In the past, it has also undertaken water / soil conservation by development of a number of lakes, check dams and bunds in these areas. It has played a key role in converting some of the abandoned quarries in the region into water bodies. The man behind this humongous effort is a noted environmentalist and nature lover, Mr. Punam Singhavi. Mr. Singhavi with his team of volunteers from Hariyali has been guiding the current campaign with a notable zeal.

We, a group of five, ended up planting about 30-35 trees, some of them being Banyan, Neem, Shatavari, Bamboo, Jamun etc. We finished by noon with our small contribution. All of us drained of water, drenched with sweat but filled with the satisfaction, headed back to our homes..! A fulfilling Sunday indeed..

The drive is on till the weekend of 26th/27th July, presenting a good opportunity to contribute our efforts!

On the other hand, Nilesh has been busy on execution and logistics for planting about 25 saplings near our ‘Den’ i.e. area around Mahesh Nagar, Nasik Road. This will add to our existing 200 trees planted there over the last five years. Our monsoon plantation efforts seem to be slowly coming back on track, after starting the season by dispatching about 80 saplings (a variety of native Indian ones) to be planted on a plot of land at Pandharpur.

Well… ‘Green chromosomes’ (thats what we have named our efforts) seems to be making a head start towards its contribution to a greener tomorrow…!