Whenever I have visited 14 Trees, Pravin Bhagwat’s eco-restoration initiative and I never fail to be amazed at the grandeur of his vision. Here is a link to his vision.
My cycling trip today coincided with his recent effort to plant 40,000 trees, one for each IIT Kanpur alumnus that graduated in the past years. If each alumnus pledged to plan just one tree, his goal would be completed. Click here to pledge your trees.
Anu and I bicycle every Sunday with a cycling group led by Atul Gopal who is IIM Calcutta classmate of Makrand Dekhane and Uddipan Bagchi. We started off in the morning from Pune on our bicycles at 6 am from home. It took us about 10.40 am to get to 14 Trees. The distance was about 65 km. The road decent most of the way, except the last 1 km where it is a dirt road.
We had some chai, poha and discussion immediately after reaching there.
Pravin has built a beautiful tree house which can sleep a family of four. No electricity though 🙂
The tree we had planted in 2016 is now grown quite a bit. It is exciting to see a small sapling grow into a robust tree, a permanent memory for us!
We saw a really beautiful flower, growing in the wild.
For planting trees, lots of water is needed. One of the initiatives Pravin has taken is to dig ponds all over the place and let them collect rain water. It is a difficult and expensive task, but has to be done. He has dug many such ponds all over the land.
We took a photo of the complete group. He showed us how he had managed to plan 2,000 trees in an area which was completely barren earlier. That was really cool.
We all planted trees. Each tree gets a nameplate with the person planting the tree. It is an amazing concept at leaving a legacy with such a simple act.
We came back to the main area around 1.30 pm and had a great lunch. The material used for lunch is grown completely at 14 trees (nothing from outside).
I also got a nice 20 min nap in the very comfy hammock.
Atul Gopal gifted Pravin a book.
Some of the group members tried scaling the rope ladder tied to the tree. It is not as simple as it seems.
It was a memorable trip. I never failed to be amazed by what Pravin has achieved. You should definitely visit 14 trees once in a lifetime. Pledge a tree, leave a legacy, contribute to eco-restoration. Click here to pledge your trees.
I feel myself lucky to visit 14 trees twice during last 4-5 years(including as recent as 12&13 February'20.
I visited 14 trees a few years back. Amazing vision of Dr Pravin Bhagwat and very pleasing transformation from black Barron land to green fertile one. Amazing work.