I was 5 years old when cyclone Verdah struck Chennai so hard that it destroyed all the greenery in the city. After the cyclone, my family was totally locked in our home and I was missing my playtime, park visits, and other outdoor activities. When things got back to normal a bit, my parents took me to my favourite park in the city and there I was shocked to see that all the trees were completely dead and the swings were destroyed due to the cyclone. Overall, the condition of the park was so disheartening that I asked my mother when all these things will be back to how they used to be. Her response was that someone from the authorities will come and get all these things sorted out.

However, the question that clicked my mind was that why someone else? Why not me? To give a sigh of relief to all of my worries, my mother suggested joining the Green campaign and it was there that I titled my mission ‘One family One tree’.

A Family Tree

We all bring things to our homes for ourselves and for our family’s comfort. Then why can’t we plant a tree on the behalf of our family? Adopting a single tree can provide oxygen for the entire life of our family. This idea hit me hard and I started the mission that if one member of a family plants one tree, the entire world will go green very soon. Even if only one member from each family of the entire 7.8 billion population of the world will plant at least one tree, we can only imagine how green the world will become and we won’t require any global initiatives to be taken then. If we can start with small initiates and the world will change soon. As of now, we need to buy water and I can imagine ourselves buying oxygen for ourselves in near future or wearing oxygen masks all the time.

A Letter From PM Modi

I shared my idea with our honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi by writing a letter and there I experienced the happiest moment of my entire life when the postman knocks on the door and I received an appreciation letter from him. You don’t receive letters usually from the Prime Minister so of course, it was a wow moment for me.

In this frequent modernisation, the idea of Japanese botanist Miyawaki of urban forest planning is a much more adaptable plan. Or even we can take up the idea of vertical gardening and even kitchen gardening. However, we need to start making small initiatives for ourselves. If you are starting gardening at your home at the initial level, don’t go for buying any gardening equipment or pots. Just start using plastic bottles, containers, coconut shells, etc. This is much more environmentally friendly and also comes with a creative idea of using the best out of the waste materials. Small things make a big difference and for that, we need to start from our home itself.

If you too have an inspiring story to tell the world, send us your story at mystory@thelogicalindian.com.