The green path…….priyanka borpujari
Two tree lovers have decided to spread their love for the FAUNA among more Mumbaikars, by launching a tree walk every Sunday in different areas of Mumbai
Two tree lovers have decided to spread their love for the FAUNA among more Mumbaikars, by launching a tree walk every Sunday in different areas of Mumbai
The average Mumbaikar will attribute his lack of knowledge of local flora and fauna to the fact that there is no green patch of land within the city limits, barring the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) and the Maharashtra Nature Park (MNP).
Again, the trip to the first park would be far for some, while the latter’s locus in Dharavi would put off many people. However, defying the popular notion of “no trees” is being challenged by two young women, who have dedicated their Sundays —rain or shine, to the understanding of leaves, flowers, roots and nature at large.
Lahar Mehta and Satwiki Nair, both 29, have been walking through Mumbai’s lanes spotting trees, and now have embarked upon a journey within the city limits to get more people to understand trees better, and “relate to trees”. Since April this year, these two friends have managed to gather their friends to walk with them every Sunday, in areas which may have a reasonable thicket.
Slowly, the Sunday group has been growing, thanks to the word spreading about ‘Walk The Mumbai Trees’—the name on which this group activity is now growing, and bringing in people from different walks of life. It was obvious that the crowd would have been an eclectic one, considering that the torchbearers of this walk come from diverse professional backgrounds —Mehta is an interior architect and Nair is an IT professional.
It was at a diploma course on Natural Sustainable Resource Management and Conservation, during the weekend class, that Lahar and Satwiki met. The course gave them the push to learn more about one of their natural wonders —trees, and over a period of time, they have developed their knowledge about various trees.
As Mehta puts it, “We wanted to let other people to also be part of our hobby, and that’s how, after much deliberation, we started ‘Walk The Mumbai Trees’. One need not travel far to know more about trees when we could just step out of our homes and look around. Of course, the people who come along surely go home relating better with trees, and identifying themselves too with the nature in a better way.”
The 1.5-hour walks would begin at 6.30 am during the summers, but now begins at 8 am. “Most people do not want to push themselves to wake up one day early. So although we do get a lot of queries from people during the week, the Sundays are not as crowded,” said Mehta, adding that the group size varied from eight to 15 people.
Since the four months of its inception, a dedicated website on the walks as Facebook have helped on getting newer people to join the women, while presentations done during Pecha Kucha nights—where they had to make a presentation of 20 slides about their walks , has equally helped.
While both Mehta and Nair are happy with the fact that their hobby is slowly getting duly acknowledged by more and more people, for them to come and join them, there are also plans to have more private walks for school children and corporates, as well as begin consultancy for corporates for their CSR initiatives.
But for now, the walks have taken place in RCF Colony, Chedda Nagar and Diamond Garden in Chembur, while the last two Sundays have been spent exploring the Hindu Colony in Dadar. “There are enough places for us to walk around for several Sundays and there is so much to talk about a single tree.
Understanding the growth cycle of a single tree type, besides knowing its uses to humans, is very humbling,” says Mehta. If you want to ditch your late morning Sunday slumber and instead explore Mumbai’s foliage, write to walkthemumbaitrees@gmail.com
* The group identifies trees during a walk in Chedda Nagar, Chembur