Bakul’s campaign receives international recognition
A ‘Tree for Free’ road show was organised on a bullock cart in the city by the Bakul Foundation on Sunday to spread awareness on gifting trees and promoting the culture of plantation. The decorated bullock cart laden with saplings began its journey from the Bakul library at Satyanagar and moved to Master Canteen. About 20 young volunteers of Bakul accompanied the cart and motivated curious onlookers to plant trees by taking the saplings from them.
Nearly 500 medicinal plants and trees such as Kanchan, Jamun, Amla, Tulsi, Ayappan, Brahmi, Hadajoda and Satabari were given to citizens. The saplings had come from the Ekamra Van of the Forest Department. The Tree for Free drive is an initiative under the My Tree Campaign of Bakul which aims to create an emotional connect between individuals and trees by promoting individual ownership of trees.
The campaign, which was introduced in 2009, has many components through which the idea of gifting trees is promoted. There is a campaign on social media in which hundreds of people have profile pictures with trees. Environmental film festivals and workshops have been organised in schools, colleges and apartments to suggest how individually each one can contribute to address the problem of climate change.
The campaign is born out of a realisation that many want to plant trees, but they keep procrastinating. Hence, this initiative makes it easier for them to take saplings for plantation. Over 8,000 saplings have been distributed so far to individuals, who have planted them. Many have come back taking more saplings after the excitement of seeing their tree grow. The campaign has received international recognition as it is going to be featured in an exhibition from November 2014 to June 2015 in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
“We were not aware of this exhibition, nor did we apply. We were very surprised when the curators wrote to us asking for our permission to feature the campaign in their exhibition. It is a huge honour and the volunteers are highly motivated on hearing this,” Sujit Mahapatra of Bakul said.