Plantation at Vikas Puri

RAINFALL DEFICIT? PLANT TREES!

The monsoons finally arrived in Delhi this week after a long delay… so much so that a joke was doing rounds that clouds had gone to the UK to watch the Cricket World Cup! And for two days the clouds showered us with their generosity. But alas, the subsequent days were dry.

A news article quoted government officials stating the dry spell may continue for a while. Contrastingly, there are some parts of India that are drowned in floods. Does any of this tell us something?

Well, for starters, there sure is an ecological imbalance. Weather patterns are changing around the world and India is no exception. Even our own meteorological department is considering to define the new ‘normal’ for the onset and withdrawal dates of monsoons. 

However, we are not sure if that would really help tackle rainfall deficit. Trees are a vital part of our ecosystem. We depend upon them more than their dependence upon us. And that’s the very reason we as a citizen-volunteer group are trying to do our bit here.

As some of you would know, we have been planting native trees for the past three years. We also water them regularly. This morning we planted neem, peepal, pilkhan etc. in A Block District Park Vikas Puri.

It was good to see some new volunteers and even better to see people in the park joining us. One couple got so influenced they brought a harsingar sapling of their own. This is what we like to achieve.

If people witnessing our volunteers’ efforts become so cognizant of what’s going on and they themselves begin to contribute with whatever little effort they can, we believe we have made a difference.

These efforts can snowball into massive movement... a revolution of sorts. Imagine if all of us can plant just one native tree and take care of it. We can certainly greenify our city the right way to fix its ecological imbalance. And we can also reverse this rainfall deficit!

We need everyone to do their bit. Join us and help us in our mission!