Building a bond with nature

The students plant seven seeds in a cardboard carton, on which they write the tree’s name, the date and sign their promise to take good care of the plant.

Deccan Herald

Around 4,000 school children studying in Standards III and IV in Bangalore have signed a document promising to nourish trees planted by them “so that it can grow up to be a strong friend”.

The initiative, which aims at inculcating an affinity to trees in young children, is the result of a tie-up between Trees for Life (TFL), a Canadian voluntary organisation and Humane India, a Bangalore-based NGO. Teachers will be given training for this programme and the second workshop under the programme was held in the City on Saturday.

There are two aspects to the initiative which will trigger a chord in the minds of the children, says Abbas Zaidi, TFL Coordinator. While one is the ‘cerebral’ aspect which will involve stimulating the child’s thought through various classroom activities, the other will be about simply getting their hands into the soil, he explains.

The students plant seven seeds in a cardboard carton, on which they write the tree’s name, the date on which it is planted and germinates, and sign their promise to take good care of the plant. They remove the weaker saplings and subsequently re-plant the saplings on the ground.

This way, they not only develop a keen interest in its well-being but also observe the process first-hand, says Mr Zaidi. Parents also take keen interest in the initiative. Indeed, his wife Radha Zaidi, who is president of TFL, says that she is involved in the initiative as a mother.

This is very different from events which have politicians and movie stars planting saplings to the accompaniment of camera flashes. “No sooner than they have all gone home, that the goat would have eaten it all up,” he remarks wryly. “If it is a child, forget the goat, he or she will not let other people to even touch the plant.”

TFL has similar programmes in developing countries, where bio-diversity usually faces greater threats than in the developed or the under-developed countries. The programme is on at Chile and China. TFL plans to start in Cuba by February.

Their goal is to cover 100 million children around the world by 2010. What better place to start, Radha Zaidi remarks, than in India and China.