Pune’s transformation from a sleepy little retirement town to a bustling hub of education and industry has been tough on its natural resources. Once known for its lush greenery, rapid urbanisation and construction are fast stripping the city of its green cover. Amidst this chaos, several youngsters in Pune are staunchly battling to maintain some semblance of natural balance and order — be it sorting out garbage or volunteering in cleanliness drives.

“It’s the sense of oneness with nature that makes you innately more conscious and aware,” shared Manasi Tambe, a final year Psychology student at Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce. For Tambe (20), it was working with Earthlings — a local organisation that focuses on art therapy — that made her more proactive in conserving her environment. From gifting sunflower seeds to workshop participants to using instruments made out of rubble, Earthlings goes the extra mile to be eco-sensitive. “We have organised three trips to Bhigwan for bird-watching, star-gazing and drum circles. Every time, we make sure that we do not litter the surroundings. We place garbage bags everywhere to collect trash and the proactiveness of the co-ordinators and organisers soon creates a bandwagon effect and the participants keep the area clean, too,” shared Tambe, creative adviser at Earthlings.

Earthlings’ drum circle and arttherapy sessions also make use of at least one instrument that’s been made out of rubble – the ‘best from waste,’ as Tambe put it. “I like experimenting with sounds and materials and I had an idea of how I could skin a plastic container to make a djembe (West African drum) out of it. We have even collected waste pipes and made a saxophone out of it,” she added.

AIESEC, a not-for-profit organisation run by students, also undertakes waste collection and segregation. “Last year alone, AIESEC’s Pune chapter organised three cleanliness drives in Koregaon Park, tree plantations at NIBM and riverside cleaning. “We collected five tonnes of garbage in the first drive, seven tonnes in the next and 10.5 tonnes in the third,” recalled Karn Vijra (20), the current president of AIESEC Pune and an engineering student at Pune Institute of Computer Technology. AIESEC strongly believes in developing leadership qualities and hence has a new committee assigned for every such drive that they plan.

“These drives take place at 7.30 am on Sunday mornings. We put on rubber gloves and masks and divide the work. The waste is segregated under different caps — medical, plastic waste, waste and so on,” said Aastha Daryapurkar (18), a mechanical engineering student at Cummins College, who often volunteers these drives. “The trickiest and dirtiest situation is when the waste gets caught up in trees and plants and begins to decompose,” added Daryapurkar. “There are quite a few challenges involved in organising these cleanliness drives. First and foremost, it’s difficult to gather people on a Sunday morning for an environmental cause. Secondly, there’s a financial crunch and it’s difficult to find suitable collaborators to organise these drives and lastly, it’s exhausting to fight the herd mentality that 20 is too young an age to make a substantial change,” rued Vijra. Despite these ordeals, AIESEC witnessed a footfall of 80, 120 and 150 people in its first, second and third drives, respectively. Vijra likes to set practical aims and his green goal for 2018 is that AIESEC, Pune, will convert a popular dumping ground in Koregaon Park into a community park. “It so happens that a local body had pledged to the masses that they would build a park here. We collaborated with them; they easily acquired manpower and we got closer to achieving our goal — it’s a win-win situation for both parties,” added Vijra.

While cleaning up their surroundings is a goal for some students, Subhannita Das (21), focuses on turning the planet greener. Childhood memories of listening to the crunching of leaves in the autumn, watching her grandfather collect cacti from Darjeeling and listening to the anecdotes of her great-grandmother tending to her roses, caught her fancy and stirred an ardent desire to nurture her green thumb.

“I have always grown up on the outskirts of a city, surrounded by greenery and I have fond memories of going to a pine forest with my mother as a kid. I remember it had a beautiful lake and everything felt so pure and serene,” shared Das. She eventually started spending a lot of time reading up on plants, collecting varieties of cacti and succulents and taking cuttings from her neighbours’ backyards.

It’s not all fun and games; gardening takes a lot of patience — it’s laborious and one has to get their hands dirty,” laughed the final-year literature student at Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce.

“Also, I have observed that people find gardening boring. If I ever want to talk about plants to someone, it’s always elderly people. We are very ageist when it comes to gardening and I don’t understand why because gardening is so rewarding at any age and time,” added Das, who loves observing and noticing minute growth and progress of her plants. Using cupcake baking trays to sprout adenium seeds, making DIY hanging pots and doing the top-soil dressing of her plants, Das has plunged herself enthusiastically in every aspect of gardening.

To form a visual diary of her plants, Das also started an Instagram page called the @greenglobgardens. “I like keeping track of their growth. It’s good to take a step back and trace their progress and a great way to spread information,” smiled Das, who finds her peace amid her greens.

Source : Pune Mirror

Link : https://punemirror.indiatimes.com/pune/campus/back-to-the-land/articleshow/63673617.cms