I’ve been visiting the small Village Hauz Khas of New Delhi, once a month to give it’s residence tree conservation tips. From one of the many New Delhi Four Star Hotels where I stay, I organize, via the Internet, group meetings through the leaders of the community. How I’ve managed to get a good showing of people, is I’ve managed to convince them that Hauz Khas is the lungs of New Delhi.
I picked Hauz Khaz, because one day, I was driving out of Hauz Khas village towards the Jaganath Temple, a regular trip I take, and I saw women crawling through the fence with firewood. Another time, I saw a group of kids, each with a bundle of twigs on their heads. This concerned me so much, I did something about it. I’ve been educating the locals that this little green patch of the deer park can not sustain the ever growing demand of it’s people and the scavenging population of the poor. Entering the forest by night to cut down young trees, leave it, then come back after a few days to pick it up when it has dried is how the poor deal with their cooking needs.
What I’ve done, is not only help them obtain other inexpensive cooking devices, ones that use kerosene, or the new solar cookers, but I’ve also educated them about ecology issues, how to limit their needs, and how if they continue with their normal practices of deforestation, then they are taking away the lungs of New Delhi. I educate them about the importance of trees, not only in our community, but for our planet. I also, at the same time, give them knowledge about their locale indigenous trees, like the Shisham, the Chinese Tallow Tree and the medicinal Neem.
Every month, I have been amazed with just how many, even though they struggle with their poverty, just how they really do care about their surroundings and want to do something to help preserve it.
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