To celebrate 50 years of Celebration of World Environment Dr. Geetika Saluja initiated a movement called TREEWAKATHON as this coincides with her 50th birthday as well. Her guiding mantra is To Be The Change That One Wants To See In This World And In The Process Influence And Inspire Others. This was completely driven by a group of people who came together for a common concern of our healthy survival on this planet. This initiative is supported by the organizing committee members Bhushan Saluja, Ar. Amit Ashara, Khamir Joshi, Sapna Agrawal, Asha Jalan, CA Jay Parekh, Parth Desai and Ahmedabad Branch of Institute of Charter Accountants of India lead by Chairperson CA Dr. Anjali Choksi, photographer Kavan Solanki, event decorator Rajshree Vora, social media designer Equinoxx studio and PR & Promotion expert Manan Dave and Rotary Club of Ahmedabad Sarvam.
Treewakathon means talking with trees while walking with trees for Trees Feel and Trees Heal. At 5 am, 250+ people gathered at Shreyas Foundation to participate in the Treewakathon and spend time with nature, learning to identify trees, birds, butterflies, and insects and understand their importance on our planet. Dr. Suresh K Patel, Dr. Nainesh Modi, Dr. Santosh Yadav, Parth Desai, AR Amit Ashara, Mayur Prajapati, Smit Bhavsar, Devraj Panchani, Khamir Joshi, Hariom Gohil, Pryiesh Kumar, Sachin Prajapati, Shweta Thakkar, Dhruv Prajapati, Ridham Dave, Masud Pathan, Dr. Pragna Prajapati and the eco club students of Gujarat Science College Gandhinaga were the experts who educated all participants in divided into small groups named after trees.
Participants were also engaged in Suryanamaskar by Dr. Seema Acharya, and landscape sketching by Artist Ganesh Vyas and his team. TREEWAKATHON movement was completely waste-free and noise-free, where no sound system, mike, paper cups or plastic bottles, or flexes were used. The water was filled in the earthen pots and people refilled their water bottles from it. The satvik breakfast was served to all. Through this we want people to bring our grandparent’s way of living back to our lifestyle. This is important to reduce plastic and noise pollution on our earth. Whatever we give to nature, nature gives it back to us in multiplication and so we urge everyone to bring one plant and in return, they can take three plants. His concept was understood by people by bringing one plant at the venue and in return taking 3 plants. Piyush Rana of Open Design gifted Udumbra tree and Ujjivan Bank gifted Sargvo, Nagod, and Vad. These are the plants that have immense significance to the ecosystem.
23 Eco angels Dr. Archana U Mankad PhD, Dr Tejus Naik, Gira C Shah, Jagriti Bhatt, Kartik Shastri, Khamir Joshi, Manish Vaidya, Nagendra Purohit, Dr Nainesh Modi PhD, Narottam Sahoo PhD, Dr. Pragna P Prajapati PhD, Shri. Rajesh Patel, Shri. Ram Kumar, RamKishor Yadav, Santosh Yadav Ph.D., Dr. Suresh K Patel Ph.D. Tejas Soni Vinod Gajjar, Mahendra Shrimali, Dr. Yaseer Rafique, Ar Amit Ashara, Dhruv Prajapati, and Hiren Patel were given awards and appreciation for their work on a plantation, wildlife photography, jivdaya, and environmental education.
Whenever a human enters any environment, he or she creates noise and leaves thrash and garbage in the environment which compels birds and other species to leave that space or leave a poor quality of life. We, humans, have to understand that we are not the only species living on this planet. We are one of the children of our mother earth and not the only children of the mother earth.
We need more such people coming forward and together to plan such awareness and educative initiatives.
