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Just imagine...a large capacity motorcycle, endless roads, long rides and lots of fuel. Something missing??? yes, its mother nature. How boring would it be to ride without a proper climate and greenery. Perhaps that is the reason why monsoon and post monsoon is the correct time to ride. Each monsoon blessing this earth with enough to sustain till the next showers.
In this fast age of endless innovations, technology and breakthroughs, we haven't been able to break through one thing...Rain. Try as we might, technologies like cloud seeding and artificial rains remain a miserable failure. But what we dont realize is that we dont need technology to bring about a change. All it requires is an investment; an investment of time and approximately Rs. 30,00,000. How you may ask? Read on
A couple of months ago, this small topic was discussed on an offline Pune meet. The topic was "tree plantation". Though the discussion was strictly limited to a mere thought, a couple of days later, this kept on growing in my mind. Strangely, in the next meet almost all of them had the same thought process on the anvil. There was no point in waiting further and we realized that we had to do something to quench this strange thirst. A big thanks to Ankit, who got the ball rolling with a phone call to Mr. Sanjay Athawale from green hills group. A couple of phone calls later, it was decided that xBhp would be going green and we would contribute from our side. The day decided was 12 July 2009, Sunday (today) at 6:30 AM. The venue, Chaturshrungi Hills.
At 6:30 AM, the xBhpians met at Hotel Roopali, FC Road and from there, we rushed to Chaturshrungi Hills to meet Mr. Sanjay. The xBhp member list included (not in any typical order) NV, MG, Inder, Ankit, Ram, NitroSatya, Samuel, Kashif and Sagar Pradhan. Thankfully Sanjay's car had enough space to gobble up our gear and helmets.
Climbing up towards the hills, we realized that its been a long time that we exercised our limbs and that was an eye opener. A couple of breathtaking scenes were the only teasers that made us climb for more.
On reaching the top, we were introduced to Mr. Takalker, a retired forest department official. We were informed that the Ground Level Marking is being done on top and along slope of the Chatushrungi hill for digging CCT (Continuous Contour Trench). Mr. Takalker helped in marking CCT and is a major contributor to the tech and know how.
Now comes the part of 30,00,000. We were told that a tree produces tonnes of oxygen and absorbs tonnes of carbon dioxide and a lot of carbon monoxide. Based on scientific experiments, the amount of oxygen generated multiplied by the current market rate of oxygen + the cost of pollution cleaning technology is approximately equal to Rs. 30,00,000 and we have not even considered the income from the branches, sap, bark and fruits. WOW...that is cool news and it simply means that by planting one sapling and taking care of it till it can take care of itself, I am contributing to almost 30,00,000
The green hills project is a type of contri project. Meaning that everyone and anyone interested can contribute. All this at NO COST; just a little bit of time is required, When the saplings are planted, it takes a lot of time till which they can acclimatize and start growing on their own. Due to the wild nature of the area, a lot of weed and grass grows around planted saplings and that results in food competition with the weeds and grass winning due to sheer numbers. This weakens or sometimes even kills the sapling. To correct the situation, volunteers are needed to weed out the grass and other stuff from the sapling's root reach. We were given sickles and other tools to dig out weeds and grass. The other major part being soil aeration. The soil is disturbed in such a way that it forms a porous surroundings allowing more oxygen to flow into the soil. Each person was free to choose two trees that they need to take care of (de-weeding and soil aeration). Me and MG decided to work as a team and complete four saplings.
Initially, while de-weeding, the soil and mud was too strange and we were apprehensive. But 10 minutes into the task and we were playing in mud as if we were small kids. Off went the tools and the good old fashioned hands were put to task. This was like my childhood days...only that this felt much better. We completed almost 4 saplings and headed towards the CCT for planting our own saplings. The saplings were Neem Tree Saplings(Azadirachta indica). The immediate bonding with these saplings that we all had was amazing and worthwhile.
Second part of the writeup later today----------
In this fast age of endless innovations, technology and breakthroughs, we haven't been able to break through one thing...Rain. Try as we might, technologies like cloud seeding and artificial rains remain a miserable failure. But what we dont realize is that we dont need technology to bring about a change. All it requires is an investment; an investment of time and approximately Rs. 30,00,000. How you may ask? Read on
A couple of months ago, this small topic was discussed on an offline Pune meet. The topic was "tree plantation". Though the discussion was strictly limited to a mere thought, a couple of days later, this kept on growing in my mind. Strangely, in the next meet almost all of them had the same thought process on the anvil. There was no point in waiting further and we realized that we had to do something to quench this strange thirst. A big thanks to Ankit, who got the ball rolling with a phone call to Mr. Sanjay Athawale from green hills group. A couple of phone calls later, it was decided that xBhp would be going green and we would contribute from our side. The day decided was 12 July 2009, Sunday (today) at 6:30 AM. The venue, Chaturshrungi Hills.
At 6:30 AM, the xBhpians met at Hotel Roopali, FC Road and from there, we rushed to Chaturshrungi Hills to meet Mr. Sanjay. The xBhp member list included (not in any typical order) NV, MG, Inder, Ankit, Ram, NitroSatya, Samuel, Kashif and Sagar Pradhan. Thankfully Sanjay's car had enough space to gobble up our gear and helmets.
Climbing up towards the hills, we realized that its been a long time that we exercised our limbs and that was an eye opener. A couple of breathtaking scenes were the only teasers that made us climb for more.
On reaching the top, we were introduced to Mr. Takalker, a retired forest department official. We were informed that the Ground Level Marking is being done on top and along slope of the Chatushrungi hill for digging CCT (Continuous Contour Trench). Mr. Takalker helped in marking CCT and is a major contributor to the tech and know how.
Now comes the part of 30,00,000. We were told that a tree produces tonnes of oxygen and absorbs tonnes of carbon dioxide and a lot of carbon monoxide. Based on scientific experiments, the amount of oxygen generated multiplied by the current market rate of oxygen + the cost of pollution cleaning technology is approximately equal to Rs. 30,00,000 and we have not even considered the income from the branches, sap, bark and fruits. WOW...that is cool news and it simply means that by planting one sapling and taking care of it till it can take care of itself, I am contributing to almost 30,00,000
The green hills project is a type of contri project. Meaning that everyone and anyone interested can contribute. All this at NO COST; just a little bit of time is required, When the saplings are planted, it takes a lot of time till which they can acclimatize and start growing on their own. Due to the wild nature of the area, a lot of weed and grass grows around planted saplings and that results in food competition with the weeds and grass winning due to sheer numbers. This weakens or sometimes even kills the sapling. To correct the situation, volunteers are needed to weed out the grass and other stuff from the sapling's root reach. We were given sickles and other tools to dig out weeds and grass. The other major part being soil aeration. The soil is disturbed in such a way that it forms a porous surroundings allowing more oxygen to flow into the soil. Each person was free to choose two trees that they need to take care of (de-weeding and soil aeration). Me and MG decided to work as a team and complete four saplings.
Initially, while de-weeding, the soil and mud was too strange and we were apprehensive. But 10 minutes into the task and we were playing in mud as if we were small kids. Off went the tools and the good old fashioned hands were put to task. This was like my childhood days...only that this felt much better. We completed almost 4 saplings and headed towards the CCT for planting our own saplings. The saplings were Neem Tree Saplings(Azadirachta indica). The immediate bonding with these saplings that we all had was amazing and worthwhile.
Second part of the writeup later today----------
Oh and I didnt give up... till I got some spanking from my dad to bloat our balcony with Watermelon creepers everywhere :P 
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