Moments make a human; we are the culmination of all the moments of our lives. About ten years ago, I was gifted a DVD of Al Gore’s campaign on Global Warming which was called ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. It spoke at length about the ways our planet is getting closer to being unlivable.

What struck with me is a comment someone made while watching it- “We’re not destroying the planet, we’re destroying our opportunity to live in it. Soon we will be no more, but the planet will continue to change and exist.”

That moment shaped me to become more environmentally conscious. It was in this pursuit that I volunteered at the NGO named BHUMI. I belong to their Catalyse Project, which aims to spread public awareness about Environmental issues, Animal Welfare, Sexual Harassment etc, and create a more empathetic and informed community.

As a part of the celebrations for Ten years of the NGO, a series of events were scheduled to take place. The first was the Tree Plantation Drive, which was on the Independence Day of India- August 15th.

We planted about forty saplings in the outskirts of Bangalore, in a place called Devashettahalli in the Government Primary School, where we had the opportunity to interact with the kids and with the locals who were extremely helpful. It was a great learning experience.

I am leaving a series of useful links below, for those interested in taking on plantation drives.

This NGO plants trees for free, on request www.treesforfree.org
To get more information on BHUMI bhumi.ngo
To particpate in tree plantation as part of #Bhumi10 celebrations sign up at bhumi.ngo/p/10

– Sriraksha Raghavan, Volunteer, Bhumi