Excerpt from Mumbai Mirror, reported by Priyanka Borpujari on 27th Aug 2010: Read Full Article
Tree lovers – Lahar Mehta and Satwiki Nair are spreading their love for the greens by conducting tree walks on Sunday in different nook and crannies of the city
The average Mumbaikar will attribute his lack of knowledge of local flora and fauna to the fact that there is indeed no green patch of land within the city limits, barring the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) and the Maharashtra Nature Park (MNP). Again, the trip to the first park would be far for some, while the latter’s locus in Dharavi would put off many people. However, challenging the popular notion of no trees is being challenged by two young women, who have dedicated their Sundays – rain or shine – to the understanding of leaves, flowers, roots and nature at large.
Lahar Mehta and Satwiki Nair – both 29 – have been walking through city lanes spotting trees and now have embarked upon a journey to get more people to understand trees better and relate to trees. A journey that began in April this year with a handful of people is fast shaping up into a popular group called ‘Walk The Mumbai Trees’. With passing times the number of the participants is shooting up thanks to the word-of-mouth publicity. It was obvious that the crowd would have been an eclectic one, considering that the torchbearers of this walk come from diverse professional backgrounds – Mehta is an interior architect and Nair is an IT professional.
