NAVI MUMBAI:: A Navi Mumbai based family of Sudhir and Vaishali Thorwe, along with their nature loving friends, have together planted close to 2000 indigenous trees in and around MMR areas in the last eight years.
Sudhir Thorwe, who works in Reliance Ltd company, informed that this year their group planted 50 tree saplings in Karjat, Raigad district, with the active cooperation of the state forest department.
His wife, professor Vaishali Thorwe, commented: "Eight years ago, my husband had shared his wish to do something for the environment; like planting as many trees as possible. I, along with my two sons, and a few other family friends immediately liked this idea. Hence, we had started looking out for indigenous tree saplings of peepal, neem, banyan, raintree and even fruit bearing tree like jackfruit, mango among others."
She added: "The forest officials from areas like Bhiwandi, Karjat, Navi Mumbai had also responded well, by showing us certain sites where afforestation was required. So, for the past eight years, our family and friends have been enthusiastically going to various areas around the MMR to plant trees during monsoon time. This year, it was a few days ahead of Independence Day."
The group of nature enthusiasts who went to Wanjale in Karjat for the tree plantation this year, included children and also senior citizens.
Names of some of the participants are: Chandrakant and Sangeeta, who also entertained the group with their songs after the tree plantation work was done. Vaishali, Shaila, Sarita, and Vilas had arranged a perfect forest lunch, which therefore made this green outing an enjoyable picnic as well.
Youngsters Prathamesh, Sarvesh, Shreya, Ananya, Maitri, Sanya, Shreyas, Ayushi had worked hard to plant these trees. Also, Shekhar Padte, Yevle, Pednekar, Mahamuni, Manisha, Atish, Ajay, Anil, Ravi, Chetan, Hitesh, Prashant, Jayesh and Nilesh, who had come with their families, could see a different joy on their faces.
When asked if they will continue with this green exercise every year, Vaishali Thorwe said: "Yes, without fail our group will regularly plant trees as past of Van Mahotsav during the monsoon season. It gives us a lot of joy to actually see our planted trees grow in size, since we also revisit the areas where the plantations had been done."
Truly, the Thorwes have understood the meaning of the ancient Indian wisdom "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" -- the entire world is your family.
