As you open Tree Souls' website, you are immediately struck by its simplicity. It's white with blotches of green and the homepage opens to a lush, green forest and Lord Byron's poem ‘There is pleasure in the pathless woods'. It's easy to guess what this website is about.
Education, advocacy and collaboration; these are the hallmarks of this green forum, started by five Nature lovers who wanted to make a difference. Prakash Rangarajan, its founder, says, “Ganesh, one of our co-founders and I have been trekking since the 1990s and our dream was to start something as close to Nature as possible. We've had a lot of support and mentors along the way, usually our trekking guides, who know everything there is to know about wildlife and Nature. It is they who inspired us to begin this forum.”
Started in 2008, the forum allows its team to spread awareness about Nature through blogs and news feeds. “We were all working back then, so I thought it would be best to go online first and begin a blog of sorts. We post news on environmental issues, Nature and wildlife,” says Prakash, adding, “right now, we're planning to expand and include save-the-green campaignin schools. It's good to catch them young so that they're aware about wildlife and nature conservation. We've identified some schools and will begin that project shortly.”
The members also conduct eco-treks. “Because we're based out of Coimbatore, we usually take people for treks along the Western Ghats. We've done three treks so far, where we bring a few interested people together and go to places such as Top Slip, Mukurthi, Bangithapal and a few other places. Since we're a small team, we can't do too many but we're planning to do more activities this year,” he says.
The website has Prakash and Ganesh's trekking experiences, highlighting the rich wildlife, rolling mountains and the ‘wisps of mist floating by'. There are also articles environmental issues and poetry on Nature.
“The response to our project has been very good so far and people write in to us. But we have some constraints and are looking to collaborate with other green groups and even think of starting an online green store where we'd like to gift eco-friendly products. But, staying true to our primary objective, we are trying to restore the balance of Nature in our own way,” say Prakash.
And these Nature evangelists continue to blog, capture moments and advocate Nature much like the way Lord Byron's poem goes, “I love not man the less, but Nature more.”
