Miheeka Amrute, Visit to Anandvan-2
Our teachers from Hutchings school suggested all the students visit Anand Van, on a Mega plantation drive.
It happened on 01st May 2022.
Anand Van Mitra Mandal (AVMM) aims to increase people's awareness about Environment, Wildlife, Climate Change, and Forest worldwide and work towards it. Anandvan is a place where like-minded people have come together to plant trees on open land, i.e., land with no trees. These people are a mix of devout professionals, including students and homemakers, who love Mother Earth and want to contribute to its sustainability and biodiversity.
When I arrived at AnandVan, the volunteers of Anandvan welcomed me. The volunteers explained that they were planting Indian trees in Anandvan. To create a small forest or a dense jungle, they decided on a pattern of two big trees, then two small trees in between them, and some bushes in the space between them.
The Volunteers at the Anandvan advised me on how to plant a tree. Following are the steps that are followed at Anandvan.
1. Dig a pit around 30cm deep.
2. Put black soil and level it.
3. Put some cocopeat, make even bed.(Cocopeat holds water for a longer duration.)
4. Plant Bakul tree.
5. Create a circular border around the plant to hold water.
6. Water the plant.
I got a chance to meet Mr. Praveen Kumar Anand, AKA KumarUncle. He explained the initiative by Anandvan. The CEO of Adar Poonaval Clean City Initiative, Mr. Krishnana, were visiting Anandvan, on the same day. I got a chance to meet him as well.
The volunteers encouraged us to visit the plant once a week and take care of the planted tree. I plan to create a video of my visit to Anandvan and share it with friends to show them how fun was the visit to Anandvan-2.
The team at AVMM is a mix of devout professionals who include even homemakers who love Mother Earth and want to contribute to its sustainability and biodiversity. AVMM came about when a patch of reserve forest land near NIBM in Pune came under the purview of like-minded individuals who took it upon themselves to save it from encroachers and garbage throwers. Their hard work and unstoppable zeal have turned this piece of unattended forest into “Anand Van” i.e .a Forest of Joy.
The initial impetus was taken further when Team Anand Van came up with the idea of a joint social forum involving more like-minded entities in myriad fields to take forward the idea of forest and environment conservation. AVMM truly believes that it is India’s environment, biodiversity, forests and wildlife that is our greatest asset and we ought to preserve the same for all future generations. To this end AVMM is actively involved with training people, conducting plantation drives, forest cleaning drives (Jangle Swatchata Abhiyaan), eco-tours, and special medicinal plants awareness camps conducting competitions to promote love and care for our environment and raising our voice toward its protection and well-being.
Here are a couple of our regular activities at Anandvan...
A. Conservation of Urban Forest Spaces: We closely work for the conservation of forest that exists in urban areas to revive them again and save them from land mafias. Our team is committed to extending our experience and knowledge to work on similar agenda for anyone and everyone. We maintain our strong connections with the Forest Dept., Ministry, NGOs and Educational Institutions for developing and channelizing social support for the protection of the Environment.
B. Green Advocacy: AVMM dreams for a greener world and healed nature and therefore we are a little sensitive when it comes to advocating healthy and correct policies for our ecosystem. We constantly make all possible efforts in Social and Govt. Platform to stand beside the programmes and products that are harmless for our environment. We raise our voice against harmful plastic, chemical wastewater pollution, air and noise pollution and issues like that.
C. Creating a Green Generation: We are closely working with many schools in Pune city for spreading environmental awareness there. As they are the future of India and if they understood the right way to live in harmony with mother nature, our job is done. We conduct various “Anand Camp” in forests and take students closer to nature.
D. Designing Future India: At AVMM we meet, think and brainstorm for finding the best solutions and ways to revive our nature’s beauty. We hold brooms in our hands when we see ugly spaces challenging us and we also pick pen and paper when we want to write a public petition for the sake of protecting our environment. Social media, Street Show, Public Talk, Green Summits and Green Conclave are our favourite tools to design a green and clean India for the future.
Miheeka Shreekant Amrute - Visit to Anandvan-2 on 01st May 2022.