Sadhana Ramchander and Kobita Dass Kolli are like two excited little girls going on a joyride at a fair when they are around trees. They love running around trees — not to sing and dance — but to admire the beauty of trees, know more about them, their characteristics etc. Kobita also confesses, without remorse, that she often stumbles on stones or other objects on the ground as she walks with her head held high to identify trees and notice the changes in them.
Start in school
Though the tree lovers club is new, its seed was planted long back when, Sadhana suggested starting a gardening class to the principal of Vidyaranya where her daughter studied. “I love plants, trees. Having grown up attending to my own pots and garden courtesy my mother, I saw the good side of it. I suggested that to Shanta Rameswar Rao and she being she, threw it back at me saying, ‘Why don’t you start it.’ Though it started as a hobby class, the numbers grew as I wasn’t just teaching students to plant a seed and take care of it, I wanted to make the class interesting as well as interactive. A year later, another parent Kobita joined me and together we continued doing what we do, talk about plants, discuss trees, leaves and a lot about nature with the children. So I guess it helped the students in their biology classes as well. Whatever be the case, it’s been 16 years and we still take the class,” says Sadhana, who authored a self published book Just look up . The hobby class now also has a syllabus designed by the duo. As the two worked, they realised there was very little understanding about nature. While we talk about planting trees and its importance to the environment, the basic lack of knowledge about common trees surprised the two. “The problem is where do we see so many trees. Our mechanical lifestyles have altered the way we live. Add to it the lack of time for people to sit and stare at trees to know about,” says Kobita as we walk around Necklace Road.
When the two met they looked at the blooming trees in and around NTR gardens and Prasads theatre. Then they quickly got to admiring the trees and the bark of the common bottle brushes on the Necklace Road.
Class to club
How did the hobby class take the turn into a club? “We are comparatively new; and our activities are mostly around tree walks. During the Hyderabad Literary fest where we talked, we conducted a tree walk in the Hyderabad Public school campus on request. We had done a few tree walks before that but had never planned anything like this. After the HLF talk and walk at HPS, thenumber of requests for walks grew. If earlier walks were organised for groups of children, now adults have joined,” says Kobita who holds an M Phil degree in plant physiology. She also did jewellery watch designing and freelanced as an illustrator.
To make sessions interesting and to give an idea on how it is conducted, Sadhana points out to the red tender leaves of the Peepal tree and says, “Nature acts according to time. Its timetable is unique and it determines everything from food to the clothes we wear. We only need to look around to notice the changes,” adds Sadhana.
What kind of questions do members of tree walks ask? , Sadhana responds, “Right from wanting to know the name of the tree to its benefits, people ask a lot of curious questions because they are genuinely interested in knowing.”
Does that keep them on their toes? “Yes. We are also learning with the people and outside it as well. Our walks are interactive and we don’t claim to be experts. We only talk and discuss what we know and see around us. Children love the idea of getting their hands dirty in the mud and parents aren’t complaining. I feel it is a good start to connect with nature,” adds Kobita.
