Ganga Action Parivar-Parmarth Niketan started this year’s monsoon tree plantation by planting 124 saplings with the students of Darshan Mahavidyalaya Muni Ki Reti School in Rishikesh. Volunteers from Parmarth Niketan, including Swechhya and Allison, from Knox College in US, Beste, a yoga instructor from Turkey as well as others also participated in this special ceremony. With Pujya Swamiji’s green vision and leadership, Ganga Action Parivar intends to cover around 51 schools and colleges in various districts of Uttarakhand to plant trees in their respective campuses.
The plantation commenced with a symbolic ceremony of offering prayers by around 100 enthusiastic students, the respected principal Mr. Radha Mohan Das and esteemed teachers of Darshan Mahavidyalaya Muni Ki Reti School, vowing to not only nurture and protect the saplings they plant, but also to keep the Ganga clean and preserve Mother Nature for the rest of their lives. They then proceeded to plant a wide variety of fruit bearing, medicinal and scented saplings of Mango, Litchi, Guava, Rudraksh, Amla, Sita-Ashok, Jasmine and many others in and around the campus premises.
Ganga Action Parivar-Parmarth Niketan volunteers emphasized the importance of this tree plantation to the students, detailing the mass tree plantation would produce lush oxygen trees which would then prevent landslides in the mountainous terrains, purify the air, keep the Ganga clean, and help sustain and nourish life on Earth. They further explained how the students could reap innumerous benefits from their tree such as relaxing or meditating under the shade, enjoying the scrumptious fruits that it gives, and attaining wisdom from it.