The importance of trees to Shri Krishna and to the whole awareness of Krishna in Vrindavan is fundamental. The name of the city of ‘Vrindavan’ is associated with van i.e the forests. Planting trees is a simple solution to resolve complex environmental problems.
We have doing massive tree plantation in Vrindavan and its surrounding areas of Braj since the organization was founded. Thousands of trees have grown fully and taken its height.
Seeing the gradual deforestation and depleted green cover in Braj, FoV decided to plant trees in big numbers every year. We have planted hundreds of trees in Vrindavan Parikrama Marg and within the city with community participation. Our focus has been on the indigenous trees of Braj, which are getting extinct. We plant Kadamba, Tamal, Peelu, Pipal, Banyan, Pilkhan and other traditional trees, which have been growing in Braj.
We involved school children and community members in planting the trees. Many trees have been planted in the schools, parks and temple gardens.
We also organize ‘Mera Vriksha’ programme in which the trees are planted by the hands of the stake holders. Mostly these trees are planted on the public places, making a community member as its guardian.
The trees are planted in metal tree guards bearing the name of the guardian. In this way we associate each tree with a member of community for their personal attention on the trees growth and protection. However, FoV take care of the trees by hoeing, weeding and watering.
While we don’t have any control on the greed of people, our intervention in preventing the tree cutting has saved many trees. Our initiative of tree planting, along with other strategies has increased the green cover in several locations. Our tree plantation drive is carefully planned, implemented and monitored over a sufficiently long time scale with stakeholder engagement and broader consideration of socio ecological complexities.
