While the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) planted 1.15 lakh saplings with just 15 days into the plantation season, there are several Samaritans who have the chore close to their hearts and are willing to take this responsibility on their shoulders.
One of them is 52-year-old Radhika Anand, who has planted over 1,10,000 fruit trees over the past 12 months using her own resources, savings and small contributions from friends and well-wishers to fund this endeavour.
The fruit trees, essentially mango (aam), tamarind (imli), gooseberry (amla) and blackberry (jamun) jackfruit (kathal) have been planted at and around Army Formations across North India, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
Radhika, a former Air Force Officer’s daughter, chose this synergistic partnership with the Indian Army as it ensured not only a seamless planting rollout, but also the fact that these trees would be tended for by a disciplined and passionate force for generations to come.
Whilst Radhika’s passion for the environment goes back to her childhood years, living in the Cantonment greens with her parents, she formalised her diverse Greening initiatives into a self-funded entity called Plantology (www.plantologyindia.com) over two decade ago.
Its previous green initiatives have included conducting over 500 workshops since 2006 at NCR in conjunction with the Delhi Government to enhance awareness in young minds and initiate a mass movement at the grass root levels.
Money earned by Radhika from these various Grassroot ventures has been utilized in this ongoing Mission FALVAN Project.
She envisages broad basing the plantation to over 200,000 trees by early next year a large component of which shall be planted in specific Commeration of the Fallen Soldiers of India under a ‘INDIA REMEMBERS’ programme conceived& initiated by the Center for Armed Forces Historical Research (CAFHR) under the aegis of the USI.
Radhika sees her passion for this Mission FALVAN growing exponentially as others join in to transform this selfless dream into a mass movement.
