For the last several decades, Pujya Swamiji has been committed to the protection and preservation of the Himalayas, our Mother Ganga, and all of the natural environment. Over the last several decades, He has spearheaded, inspired, personally run, and motivated others to do massive-scale tree plantations – not only in the Himalayas, but across India.

One of the projects that is most-dear to His heart is the reforestation of the Himalayan region, and for that over the last many years we have done several large-scale tree plantation programmes in the mountains that have created sacred forests, or van, in the sacred Chardham four temples pilgrimage area. Many of these have taken place in and around Uttarkashi, toward Kedarnath and many other areas in the Himalayas.

On our recent pilgrimage to Gangotri and Yamunotri, it was so beautiful to visit one of the Rudraksh van that we have planted over the years and to see how beautifully all of the trees are growing thanks to the careful and wonderful attention of the team that is nurturing and protecting it. We also had a wonderful opportunity to plant even more trees in this incredible garden.