For past few months our idea of the new dwelling was somehow countryside living. We skimmed and scrutinised many a places, from paved patios to midget cottages to independent houses with football field size gardens.

We almost thought that we found a new place and were about to pay the deposit, when on a tired Friday evening we decided to ‘View’ a ‘new to market’ house. A very regular advert, with an equally regular – pricy estate agent.

The dreadful traffic kept Sujay from reaching the property so i was left to exchange pleasantries and ask questions about bills, heating, council taxes etc.

the viewing was done and the agent rushed off to get spent over the Friday night. the then tenants hurriedly locked the door as they had to play at the local pub. Sujay called to check where he should pick me, and i said to him ‘We found our house- there’s an apple tree in the garden!!!

An ‘Apple tree’ some how was the symbol of Country living and probably an extension to English Way of Life. With the apple tree came a vegetable patch, apricot tree and rose bushes, but the Apple tree took the bow. The tree was popular almost overnight and every weekend since we moved in it had visitors.

Plans of having a pint and a barbeque sunder the tree were hatched. And apple pie, crumble, jam, chutney, cake recipes were exchanged.

I am not sure whether it was the popularity, the summer of 2011 or a growth phase, but the tree bore immense fruit. The topic of discussion then revolved around giving away the apples to neighbours and making friends, tea parties for distributing apples and raising charity in the office through selling apples.

However the apples out numbered all the plans. The tree started dropping due to the weight of the fruit. The apples were absolutely daunting us and took a form of Garden pest.

The pricy agent came into the picture again when we requested him to arrange the pruning of the tree, however we were told by the wise Gardner neighbour that summer was not the right time to prune and that we need to wait until fall or winter. As months passed the tree shed all leaves but the apples were still hanging.

One Sunday morning in October Sujay and I plucked every single apple from the tree and dumped it in the compost. The tree is now stripped of every leaf and every fruit and awaits pruning. The compost pit has digested all that was fed, but the apples thrown into it 3 months back are still popping green like wild winter flowers.

- Aditi Chonkar

One of the plants she so nurtured was a parijata. She loves the soothing white colour of the flower, and its subtle, almost undetectable scent. She had gone to great lengths to obtain a cutting, which she then very carefully nurtured. It struck roots and grew to be a fairly sturdy plants.

It was almost a hobby with us to watch her watch over the plant. There were fights with the sparrows who pecked at the leaves, attempts to shield it from excessive rain or sunlight and keeping it safe from strong winds. We went along with her in the range of emotions – anxiety, sorrow, restlessness, and finally the exuberant happiness when the first flower bloomed.

Parijata flowers in the night. We went to bed one night with longing looks at a bud that had become very big; that longing was rewarded with open petals the first thing in the morning. The next day more flowers blossomed, till we had a handful of flowers to be offered to our family Ganpati.

Over time, however, the plant grew so big that we had to seriously think of trimming it, or planting it in our society garden. Mother was worried that the gardener may not take good care of it, but she did not want to commit violence upon the bush that had given her so much joy. Reluctantly she gave it away to the gardener, a sullen-faced chap who wasn’t very pleased. He nevertheless planted the parijata in an unobtrusive corner of the garden.

He never took care of it. But the tree seemed to know that it had gone back to its natural environment. For it has survived several summers, monsoons and winters. It is now fairly tall tree, and produces flowers in copious quantities. Every morning you will notice a few elderly citizens plucking its flowers for their daily pooja.

Sometimes mother asks me to get a few flowers from the tree. This is a painful experience, because I consider plucking flowers an act of violence upon the tree. I prefer to pick the flowers that have fallen of their own accord. They are often fresh, and because they are free of the taint of violence, perfect (in my eyes) as divine offerings. I often get into fights with senior citizens if I catch them plucking flowers, or shaking the tree to make flowers fall.

Over time, I have managed to get a few people to understand this principle of ahimsa, and collect only fallen flowers. I hope I’ll be able to get everyone else around to this position soon. Mother’s parijata has now become my parijata. For shouldn’t the ephemeral and delicate beauty of the parijata flower remain free of the evil of violence?

Yours truly,
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan, M.S.(I.I.Sc.), B.Sc. (Mumbai)

As a child, I don’t ever remember playing with the neighborhood kids. Our lush, green garden, the chirping, vibrant birds, the lilting whiff of the flowers and the pleasurable company of my elder sister was all that I needed to pass my hours. Didi and I would endlessly amuse ourselves by watering the plants (and each other in the process), adorning our very own man-made pond with sea shells, and at times, playing hide and seek in the vast maze of green! That garden was our very own haven.

Till sometime back, my love for trees and plants was limited to appreciating their external beauty and to the calming effects, that spending a time of solitude in nature, had on me. However, since the time I have started practicing the art of mindfulness, my love for trees has become more profound. Buddhist philosophy (of which mindfulness is an important part) reveres nature since it is believed that there is a close interdependence between the natural environment and the sentient beings.

In Buddhist philosophy, there actually is a practice called “Touching the Earth”. The practice of “Touching the Earth” is to return to the earth, to our roots, to our ancestors, and to recognize that we are not alone. When we touch the earth, we become small with the humility and the simplicity of a young child. When we touch the earth, we also become great like an ancient tree, sending its roots deep into the earth, drinking from the source of all waters.

Being mindful of trees and nature taken together has made me appreciate the fact that every moment of our lives, we are provided for and taken care of by trees; be it for food or for the larger interests of the economy. In spite of being all providing, the tree teaches us the virtues of patience, calmness, compassion, selflessness and humility. But rather than showing gratitude, what do we humans do? Ruthlessly cut down trees for our own selfish needs. Repetitive as it might sound; there is a pressing need to protect our forests. Otherwise an appalling future awaits us all, not only in this life, but our consequent births as well. Just as the Bible teaches us the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” so does the Bhagavad-Gita teach us the rule of cause and effect which takes into account the karmic actions of every individual. In other words, if we don’t fancy the fate of a brutally cut-down tree in our next birth, we must stop this merciless killing of trees.

My realization of the significance of trees in our lives and the consequent gratitude I feel towards Mother Nature, made me renounce eating of non-vegetarian food and to perk up to fight for our environment. This is my way of giving back to Mother Nature for all those happy childhood memories as well as nurturing me thereon.

Henry Van Dyke has rightly said, “He that planteth a tree is a servant of God, he provideth a kindness for many generations, and faces that he haith not seen shall bless him.” Let us today take a vow to protect and prune our trees for a better tomorrow.

In other seasons she looks just as beautiful, I wondered how she endured the weathers, but I think she enjoys it. She drinks in the rains, gets a even woody tan in the scorching sun and looks composed in winters.She stays with her family, they are always visiting though, they come in seasons & make their home with her. I wish I was like that and could actually get to stay with her.

Her thought makes me happy, just her being around makes me complete and we share a bond which needs no explanation. Its just she and me.

Her story:
The girl on the bike keeps driving past and is always looking at me, wonder what she wants. She doesn’t come near and talk to me, just looks. I did not know how to react earlier, maybe she wans to hurt me.  Somehow I know she wants to be my friend. I have been here for long, many of her kind pass by everyday, they don’t even know I am here. No one is like her. No one looks at me like that .  Some scrape, scratch and sometimes mar me but none of them smiles at me! I feel nice when she comes by, wish many others would treat me like that. Of course my family members do keep me company whenever they visit every year, I just want to be around here for many years for them, not like others who are torn from their homes. Just think what the family would do when they don’t see me next time. It takes years for me to grow & to be able to support other families.

I have very little needs & am happy all the time. The seasons bring their gifts for me, a yearly wash in rains is what I enjoy the most and of course, the summers, when I get to wear brilliant colors and drown in the aroma of my bloom.

There she is again, staring at me, maybe she wants to paint me, or take a photograph, I don’t know. I like it when she comes by. There is no need for words between us, the love is enough for us to know we are special for each other.

I wish she would come and touch me and a hug would be marvelous

And then suddenly, out of nowhere, a small scene flashed out. A little girl, sneaking chili seeds out from the potato sabzi in her lunch, just like every other day, only this time, not throwing them into the bin, but secretly putting them into a small white plastic Shikakai pot hastily filled up with damp mud, in the few minutes that her mother dozed off. Who watered it every day from her water bottle, fearing someone would discover if the water in the jug seemed lesser. Who looked at the tiny pot every day, and prayed that it grew enough chilies so her mother wouldn’t have to buy from the grumpy old vegetable lady. Who was terrified when her parents finally discovered it, fearing the worst, and jumped in ecstatic joy when they allowed her to keep it and gave it a nice, cozy place of its own in the window! Who looked in wonder at her pot after a few weeks, that contained a miraculous transformation from few seedlings to a handsome, swaying chili plant, and decorated it with stickers and glitter and chart paper and wrote in proud letters – My Tree. Who took it to her school and showed it to everyone and celebrated the plant. Who still has the white pot, although the plant, too big to grow in it now, had to be shifted to the park.

My relationship with plants has just been so natural that I don’t at all remember making a conscious effort to do anything in that regard. For no reason, I just choose them. More moments started flashing out in random order – I remembered caressing the jasmine plant when I plucked a flower, giving a long speech in front of the neem tree that always greeted me every morning when I looked out the window, reading tree chapters in my textbook with extra interest. I remember listening awestruck to stories of my grandfather tending to his neat vegetable garden in our village house backyard, I remember climbing onto the slanted rooftop to wave huge bumble bees off the bean-vines (even though I felt dead scared of them), I remember pleading excitedly to my mother to take me to the huge farm of her aunt where they used to grow everything that could be grown and who didn’t buy a single food item from outside except salt, I remember my great-uncle teaching me the names and the origins of different varieties of spices that he’d planted in his kitchen garden.

And the most splendid experience of all – spending the last four years of my life in companion with a tree that had become an inseparable part of me – The Banyan Tree of the CoEP campus. It was my spot for contemplation, its thick stem a hiding place for dodging professors who would walk by it to the next lecture classroom, dozing off beneath its cool aura as we waited for the next practical, to go so far as to conduct an entire club meeting underneath the natural canopy it provided! Every day included at least one trip to the tree, even if it had to be the only reason to walk to that side of the campus. The countless moments spent beneath its benevolent branches, blink smilingly up at me now, as I can’t help thinking, trees are companionship. Trees understand. Trees soothe. But trees also rebel. Because trees, are life. And that is why, trees are memories.

(c) Anuradha Ganesh

Axel Benemann – Germany

The tree itself was huge and rather like the curvy, elaborate chandelier in my grandfather’s home, turned upside down. Come spring and it blossomed with soft leaves the color of a parrot. As time passed, these hardened to a dark oily green, were smooth to touch, and crackled between your fingers. At times we collected these leaves and after much scrutiny placed the best between pages of books to dry to a skeleton. These dried leaves latticed with a fine tracery of veins were painted over with images and converted to greeting cards.
The children from our colony often sat on the parapet wall around the tree, while taking a break from their games. There, we exchanged stories with gruesome delight about how there was a shrieking ghost who lived amongst the branches and ate small children. One early morning, as I waited at the peepul for my friends to emerge from their homes, there was a loud screech from right above my head. I nearly jumped out of my skin. It being morning, curiosity overcame fright. Soon the cause made itself visible. It was a spotted owlet. Most of the time, this bird stares at you with its round eyes, bobbing its head from side to side like a bharatnatyam dancer, resembling an annoyed dignitary. An owl is quite a comical bird. I still do not know why it is considered as a bad omen, especially when the peepul tree on which these birds perch is sacred.

Aptly named ‘Ficus religiosa’ by botanists, the peepul is universally revered by Hindus and Buddhists. Its Sanskrit name ‘Ashvattha’ is composed of ‘Shwa’ ie. tomorrow, ‘a’ meaning ‘not’, and ‘tha’ or “one that remains”. Thus the tree is a symbol of constant change in the universe. This is the ‘Bodhi Vruksha’ or ‘Wisdom Tree’ under which Gautam Buddha found enlightenment. You will rarely find a Hindu temple without a peepul on its premises. Most Hanuman temples are shaded by these gentle giants.

Native to India and South East Asia, this tree is cultivated in far flung corners of the earth such as California and Hawaii. Every part of this tree – bark, leaves, root and fruit – have medicinal value in ayurveda, the ancient system of herbal medicine of India.

Every Indian village had at least a few peepul trees which formed the village meeting place, the local social watering hole. Today the peepul’s size and girth may not find favor among the growing greed of builders and so called progress.

The peepul and I have traveled a long way since then. There is a fine specimen with its generous spread in the park where I often go for a walk. In the evening you can spot the silent flap of wings as owls glide in search of dinner. The fruiting season attracts starlings, crows, bulbuls, orioles, and even the occasional langur monkeys, who enjoy the meal with much noise and clatter. But the best peepuls I have seen are the small seedlings that come to life at the upper reaches of old buildings, in the crack of a rickety old wall, or a water drain pipe. To live, then, is to survive.

 (Original story posted on the authors’s blog)

The Pune Tree fest is a joint effort by many organisations and individuals to draw attention to the trees and greenery around us in the city of Pune during one focused week.  Several Pune groups have come together for this venture – Pune Tree Watch, Oikos for ecological services, CREDAI, Pune Municipal Corporation, Ecological Society, Green Hills Group, Bluewiss, Neeti Solutions, ARI, CEE amongst others, as well as interested individuals and schools – colleges like Symbiosis Arts & Commerce students, Bharti Vidyapeeth, Abhinav Kala Vidyalaya who are gifting their time and expertise to the venture.

You all are invited for various events being organized during this week. Be present & spread a word with others. Click here for the complete schedule

Just behind our house is a huge Gulmohar tree (delonix regia) which has been a treasure house for birds for a long time. It has been here for a long time, much before I was born and it must be around 100 to 200 years old. The tree’s branches are widespread and its leaves are huge.

This Gulmohar tree lies in the boundary between our apartment and a different society. It houses many birds such as the Bobtail, Wagtail, Sunbird, Bee-Eater and many more. The Gulmohar tree does not have any fruit, but it has beautiful red flowers. Its seed pods are a long, green, soft covering which then turn into a long, brown, hard covering. There are individual seeds as well. The Gulmohar tree is dense so it is the perfect place to nest for small birds in the vicinity. The Gulmohar is an evergreen tree and its beautiful red flowers bloom by mid summer. It is a tree which grows in tropical parts of the world.

Whenever I feel bored or I have nothing to do, I look at this Gulmohar tree and try to spot birds. My boredom gets blasted away! But, this tree is one of the only trees around our building which has survived. A few days ago, a Eucalyptus tree was cut down and so was a Coconut tree. I hope that not only the Gulmohar, but all the trees on earth are not harmed by humans in any way. I hope that a day comes when all of mankind realizes what a crime we are committing and not commit this sin again or if we do not realize what we are doing then God should punish us and leave the trees in peace.

If the Gulmohar tree is cut, I will be really sad. Though they cannot talk, trees are living things. I think many people do not understand this. If we keep on cutting trees, it will be like carving a path towards our destruction. By killing trees we are killing ourselves.!

By,

Rushil Roy

The sun shone through a watery curtain of peepal leaves that shivered deliciously,spraying the rain water collected on them with each shiver.A golden light bathed the leaves making them look like coins shimmering in the sheer joy of being alive.One such drop escaped and fell on the smooth forehead of Jenny waiting patiently under the tree.She playfully allowed it to run down her long nose and careen down to the ground.

This was Jenny’s favorite haunt in sun or rain.The shade of the peepal protected her from heat and rain.She hated going indoors with its strong musty smell.She sniffed daintily at the evening breeze,recognizing the aroma of Murugesan mama’s evening porridge cooking on the open hearth in front of his thatched cottage.She even could tell the source of the twigs he used as fuel by their peculiar smells when they were burnt.She could never decide whether she enjoyed the smell of petrichor or the smell of burning timber.But then she was afraid of fire.So she decided petrichor was her scene.She was so afraid of fire that even when distant hill brush burned the evening sky,she would rush to the peepal tree and seek refuge there.

She remembered early spring to be the time when the numerous birds made their nests, in its leafy branches.The tree had set down a lot of secondary and tertiary roots that fell to the ground from great heights.They steadied themselves in the hard ground before growing new branches and spreading their girth in an ever widening circle.The thick foliage with their fruits that the birds feasted upon housed many birds,squirrels,bats,owls,big red stinging ants,honey bees in their combs,and the weaver birds in their stitched wonders.

The children playing in the gardens would come there for a game of hide and seek.The large tree bases and gnarled roots were shaped by rain and sun into huge hiding places,which were good places to hide in.The biggest and oldest peepal tree Jenny had heard the kids say was in Kolkata in the Botanical Gardens.It was supposed to have grown big enough to cover nearly an acre in area.Jenny sighed peacefully and looked around her in great glee.How she loved this peepal tree.

Poor Jenny did not know the difference.She enjoyed her daily siesta under the huge banyan tree,little knowing that it was in fact a Banyan Tree.She was after all an ass!!!

__._,_.___

This story concerns the golden period of my life, circa 1993-95, when we were stationed at the world’s Greenest Capital, i.e. Gandhinagar. I still feel, I had been transported to heaven, the three years that we spent living in midst of a million plus trees in a city with barely a quarter million souls sharing all this abundance. For those who have never been to what is perhaps the best planned city in the world, which runs with clockwork efficiency and nary a stray plastic bag or stinking garbage can be seen. However the government’s job is to rule us unruly subjects, so often, I would watch with apprehension and diffidence, as hundreds of young frees would be chopped off now and then… from the ‘green’ portions of each sector.

” Why do they do that?”  I asked my Mr. Know-all driver who had an answer for any question. ” The cops feel thieves hide in the thickets sir,’  he said but the smile hovered on his lips so I gave him another questioning look. He added : ” Ahem, in the evening sir, love-birds use these thickets as safe rendezvous points.”

Gandhinagar was then a city planned with 34 sectors, though only 29 sectors were built. Each one was exactly 0.75KM in size, with a few bungalows, one small shopping centre, one dispensary, one school, one religious place ( temple, church, mosque…) and properly tarred roads, sheer paradise for walkers and joggers who would stream onto the parks. Yes, and one park each for every sector. The two of the  largest parks were in sector 28, just opposite ours, and the other was in sector 24 where the world famous Swaminarayan Temple stood in all its magnificent glory and attracted hordes of visitors. As the highway passed through the city, most of us walkers avoided the main arterial road, often spilling over to either the river side, the Sabarmati river flowed close by, or towards the village Manasa, where even the Neel-gai (blue bulls) hordes would come close to the industrial estate and watch us, as we watched them.

I had a decent little garden of my own in the rented bungalow. My wife is an expert gardener and she brought it to sparkling life soon. I would religiously water the entire garden, and often wonder if I too should plant a seed, and nurture a plant? On a wild impulse, I chose a patch outside our bungalow, close to the four foot high wall. The idea was, I could put the water hose through a hole in the wall and water the budding plant. The golden moment came, when I was eating an orange. On another impulse, I planted a few orange seeds, marking the place efficiently. I watered it for weeks and nothing except wild grass grew. Then one fine morning a tiny plant showed up. Just two tiny leaves, and I put up all sorts of thorny branches from bramble bushes to save it from stray cows, goats and even rampaging kids. We had hordes of kids marauding the gardens, so I would chase them  away, the moment they showed up.

In a fortnight my orange plant was a few centimetres tall. I became darker green, it grew sturdier. Within a few months, it became almost a foot high. I still kept the crude fencing around it. Somehow it became a sort of an anchor for me. Every evening, back from work, after parking the car, I would go out and see how many new leaves had sprouted, if there were any signs of germs or bacteria discolouring them, if the stem was okay…. every morning after waking up, long before sunrise, I would go and steal a peek at it. In my rituals -visiting my own plant, there was a curious mix of affection, fear (lest someone chop it down, eat it up…), religiosity -because I kept coming back at fixed intervals, even taking one last look at it using a torch at midnight.

Sadly, the company promoting my project ran into labour trouble. The writing on the wall was clear, within a few months my own employees would be forced to look elsewhere for work. They left one by one. I too looked around and found a suitable job at Pune. But I managed to stay back till the last piece of machinery was sold, and the last debt cleared.

One day we too packed up and left. Yes, the last thing I did was go to my orange plant, and shed a tear. I didn’t know how to care for it, I mean taking it with me, on a long journey and re-planting it may have worked but I had too many human troubles hounding me to think constructively. Strange but today after nearly 17 years, I have never gone there to take a look at what may have died out. Or may have grown into a large tree.

(c) Max Babi

Feroza Saran

Ours is a really frustrating country to work in, but the challenges make the more determined of us carry on inspite of the odds.

Pune Tree Watch has done great work right from its inception, and the five years have gone in a wink! (I.e. when I think about me battling it out for the trees since the last 28 years, more or less single handedly). It is great that so many younger people have now got involved and realised the importance of saving and planting trees.

Thanks to the internet, we can now continuously brain storm and share and implement ideas, and thanks to e-governance, we can now keep the Government on their toes as well!

For the most time, I have been receiving distress calls from all areas of Pune.  People really want to know how they can prevent trees from being cut before the damage is done, but they are reluctant to complain against their own neighbours and friends, and want to put the whole burden on us (which is not fair!) Senior citizens are scared to complain when they know that builders are involved and send goondas to cut trees at night!

1) We need more citizen volunteers from each ward area (Now the 14 municipal wards will be broken up into  44 smaller wards).

2) We need to know the names of the persons in charge of each ward from the garden department and their mobile numbers.

3) We need to print out more small leaflets (like the one before) to hand out and  create awareness as to how to prevent tree cutting and what action to take.

4) We need to sensitise all police stations/chowkeys to take prompt action against tree cutting complaints.

5) We need to insist on the PMC collecting large garden waste totally free of cost, so that people do not cut down trees in their housing societies.

6) We need to once more collect thousands of signatures to push the Bio Diversity Park plan through for the hills of Pune, seeing that Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Environment has agreed to help out in the matter.

7) Funds can come through contribution from Corporates as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (SCR).

Here’s to many more years of good hard work for Pune Tree Watch!

Madhavi Kolte

let me congratulate you for having made this move 5 years ago…certainly it has benefitted  a lot of us…one intiative made such a difference…may there be may more such initiatives. i really appreciate your patience for being open to a lot of opinions..the internet is a real boon hear because of which we are able to do continuous brainstorming. the competition complied by Sanskriti and others seems really interesting and can be a trigger….so is the pune tree fest..there are a lot of ways where you are encouraging peoples involvement. recently i saw a picture being circulated on the net of a public bus being painted well with the quote ONE BUS MEANS 40 LESS CARS ON THE ROADS…..how creative..something that is going to nudge people all the while..really we need some more of this…we should also copy this in pune.

Sourabh Phadke

Five years! Wowee.. Congrats

Parineeta Dandekar

Its great to know that PTW is now five years old!

From how I look at it, again, being a silent member for most of the part, is such an initiative adds to the overall sensitivity and consciousness of us citizens… and that, in India, is one HUGE TASK.. you should be rightfully proud of it!! Congratulations!

For me and some of my friends, PTW has been like a conscience keeper of sorts… we know we cant ignore a tree being cut, or a bird without its nest, because now we dont have the excuse of not knowing what to do…

I am sure PTW will continue and, as days go by, grow stronger

Supriya Goturkar

It’s nice to realise that PTW completed five years! It’s feels great to be a part of such an initiative,even though I have been a silent member for most of the time.

Tasneem, you have been a wonderful leader and coordinator!

Thanks to all the active members and others as well who have supported this movement.

Subhojit Roy

First of all – CONGRATULATIONS on making an organization like PTW successful! Building an organization from scratch is by no means easy. I appreciate all the efforts that would have gone into this (especially for such a noble cause) and hope that this organization continues to have a big say in the environmental efforts afoot in Pune.

Pavan Iyengar

PTW is our friend to help us save trees from Concrete jungle! After the interactions(personal and email) we have started conserving a hill sceintifically(special thanks to sharvari ji), growing organic Palak,Mint,Kadipatta,Mirchi,Pan (thanks to mails from tasneem ji) and started to build a tank only with mud and stones at the foot of hanuman tekdi (thanks to ketaki ji).

This is to let you know we complete 5 years  this time of the month..  YAAYYY!!  This is a long mail.. but I would think quite readable and free of jargon and emotional drama… so I would request you take some time off and read this. If you do not want to read this note (and I would think you would be amongst a large percentage), I would then sincerely request that you send me some feedback of what you have thought of PTW so far.. and what have your experiences (if any) been – good and bad. A small one liner from you would also tingle the senses in this happy moment. Some of the feedback we have already received is available here and we would be happy to recieve more

A wonderful 5 years it has been for me, packaging all the experiences together and all the people that I have met including the Tree Authority members. I am sure some of you would have the same to say. There is more to be done and accomplished and I hope more able hands will take this forward as one builder told me – ” to torture” the world better.

Given my absence in the last 6 months, I was happy to see that the communication continued. We managed to produce a brochure, continued aiding and assisting people and had wonderful participation from some other members. I would like to thank Subhojit Roy in particular for being the promptest moderator we ever had. He approved mails even before I got to them. Overall, I think we did quite a bit, given my physical absence and other members taking on small yet important tasks.

So what next ? (I hate this part as it means more planning and even more resources for planning. Yet it is crucial)

a) a coordinating agency perhaps – for a long time now Kalpavriksh has been the coordinating hub for PTW and now on the lookout for another coordinating agency.  Of course we can continue without one, but then when it comes to funding then we have some issues. For all practical purposes as a group we have decided not to register PTW as an NGO and keep it free flow. Like I said there is a lot of work to do and the best role of PTW has been that of a support group where we actively have been helping each other and citizens with effective results most of the time.

b) more PTW members take up championships – we are doing this already but would be great to have more PTW members taking responsibility and sharing the support work that we already offer. Feroza Saran and Col Sawhney I would say are the only members who have been the area wise representative long since we started and both have been active.  It is not so much work really.. and it is nothing but satisfactory because after being the “Face” for an area for long,  one develops a good relation with the administration over a period of time and a deep sense of meaning (I am serious!).

c) funds – for some of the peripheral work we do. Just speaking from my experience for most of my coordination work, I have worked in complete voluntary capacity which has meant that I have had to do several other projects at the same time to sustain my existence . I have managed to do that fairly well also because I was working with an environment NGO. Yet, I felt that had I more financial support I could have done more focussed work without feeling the stress of juggling various tasks. Why am I saying this to you ? because if we need to engage young people in grassroots and leadership work we must make amends to pay them adequately else the work fades out (and there are many examples in Pune such as this) and it continues to remain the work of the privileged or the senior members of society. Yes! I am still on the look out for funds for one law and policy dossier, so that is one output clearly in my to-be-done list. But many many many thanks to all the donors to have contributed and help us in whatever way they could.

d) education and communication – making trees a household name.. a small and yet vital necessity if we want to turn the tide of events the city is being engulfed in. The priority for trees and a good and clean environment needs to be as important as cooking gas perhaps. I can only imagine what that change could then amount to.  It is not impossible to do, but it needs a lot of creative minds, communicative mouths and pockets with some money.

e) the last of PTW – I dread to say this but there is a small chance that could happen without funding, leadership and coordination this movement does not survive.  Like I said in the past 6 months we did quite a bit with PTW members participating and my coordination from “out-of-the-world” so maybe that is the way forward. In the end the group had one strong sense of purpose and that was to make citizens ACTIVE and that we have seemingly achieved…But I think it is together all of us now who need to think of this. PTW after all is just as much as your group as much it is mine.. you have just appointed me to coordinate it (talk of governance!!).

I leave you with that.. PTW’s work is but one small drop in the ocean but what a splash it has been!!

just.tasneem@gmail.com

Tree Felling complaints in Pune  

Garden Dept, 020-25532514, 25538553

Pune Tree Watch members

Pune Tree Authority members who could help

Ketaki Ghate, 9822659804

Gajanan Tharkude, 9822063144

Haji Zaakir Sheikh, 9689932120

Tanaji Lonkar, 9822646566

Transplantation: Darshan Desai, Surat

greenolution@gmail.com

09825229081

Plantation guidance:

Ketaki Ghate, 9822659804, oikos@rediffmail.com

Sachin Walunj, 9850832592, sachin.walunj@saama.com

Sanjay Deshpande, 9822037109, smd156812@gmail.com