Students of Akshar Vidyalaya Secondary School in Raigad district celebrate birthdays of trees planted by them for the past 16 years.
Like humans, trees too have lives and feelings. Keeping this in mind, students of Akshar Vidyalaya Secondary School in Raigad district have been celebrating birthdays of trees planted by them for the past 16 years.
The school — situated around 60km away from Mumbai — believes that one should not only plant trees, but also take care of it across the year. Thus, the school has been planting trees every year in and around the school. The first week of July is usually celebrated as Van Mahotsav (tree plantation ceremony) across the country where people, including NGOs and government agencies, engage in various plantation activities. So far, the school has planted more than 75,000 trees — a practice they started in the year 2000.
What's more unique about their initiative is the birthday celebration of tree for which they print invitation cards and send it to as many people across the district every year. Senior police officials, revenue department officials and local authorities always mark their presence on this occasion. "We have been celebrating the birthday of our trees in the first week of July for the past 16 years. We choose one of the trees and decorate it. Then in the presence of all the guests and students, we cut a cake under the tree which is then distributed to everyone. The same day, we also plant more trees. There is a huge forest around the school and we plant the trees in that area as well," said Vijay Patil, president, Akshar Vidyalaya.
Every year, the school kids plant around 5,000 trees, but this year — being part of a government initiative — they planted as many as 50,000 trees wit the help of the forest department. "It's a really great initiative. I think this is a good idea of creating awareness among the people about tree plantation which also highlights the important of this cause. This model should be followed across the country," said Paresh Pimpale, founder of Ecofolks, an NGO working on creating environmental awareness.
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