Trees are such wonderful creatures of which we know so little.
I own a cottage at Bhimtal in Uttrakhand which along with me around 100 other people booked and gave
advance to the builders in 2006. Most of us did not even see the place wherein the builder committed to
build our society on a slope of mountain. Resultant of which he bulldozed and removed hundreds of
trees and left only one tree in this large piece of land. Then started our problems, project got over
delayed and the builder started twisting the stories, we had to literally take over our cottages half
completed and then spend lot of time in completing them but still our problems had not gone. We had
to create a Society wherein we brought all residents together and then we had to file a case against the
builders for covering our common areas like parks and parkings into illegal constructions. Firstly, we lost
the case at Nainital High Court which wasted our two years.
It is then I came across a book called “Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben” which I read and
realized our sin what we all had done though inadvertently. After that I met Bankhandi Maharaj who also
guided me to plant trees. I carried out first tree plantation drive in July 2015 at Raksha Retreat Bhimtal by
planting 500 saplings and surprisingly our problems started tapering down. Then I further carried out
second tree plantation in 2016 wherein another 500 saplings were planted and now our problems
almost vanished. We won our second case filed with National Green Tribunal.
This is the effect of trees on our well being. We uprooted the trees for our selfish gains and we faced
havoc. When we started planting trees, our happiness came back manifolds.
Thereafter, I ensured that atleast 100-200 saplings were planted every monsoon. I even started
gifting saplings to my staff telling them to look after one sapling till the time it survives on its own.
We all use wood in our house holds and place of work which basically comes out of felling the trees. But
we do not realize that trees also act as lungs to our planet. Our whole furniture viz-a-viz beds, doors,
windows, almirahs, sofas, dinning tables and office furniture comes out of wood. We do not even
know how much of destruction we are doing to ourselves by felling of trees. In Russia there is a rule, for
every tree you cut, you have to plant one tree and ensure that it survives, there are very strict laws for
the same.
Incase anybody is interested in plantation of trees, please feel free to contact Capt Ravee