A 12-year-old girl completed an 8,000-km journey from Kashmir to Kanyakumari dropping over 4 lakh seed balls across the country.
Rakshana Ravi from Vengamedu, Karur, has been an active social activist since she was a child. In 2018, Ms. Rakshana expressed interest in travelling the country and dropping seed balls. “Until then, I was giving out plants but I read how seed balls can be a good option to grow trees,” she said.
Her parents supported her interest and thus began the long journey, dropping 50 seed balls per km.
Ms. Rakshana was felicitated and invited to speak to her peers at Velammal Matriculation Higher Secondary School after completing the cross-country trip. As a message to children like her and to all citizens, she urged everyone to plant a few trees.
“Trees are the easiest and cheapest solution. Instead of trying to solve our problems through technology, we must go the natural way,” she said.
The student has planted trees in over 120 villages and has handed out at least 80,000 saplings.
“Through the trip, I also wanted to draw attention to six issues - child labour, girls education, child sex abuse, protection of birds and improving organic/natural farming. I told bystanders and supporters the harmful effects of global warming and how planting trees can solve it,” she said.
Travelling across the country was a special experience for her, said Ms. Rakshana, who kicked off the trip on June 14 and completed it on July 14.
“Throughout the month-long trip, we travelled to all corners of the country where people were very supportive. Many people took the seed balls from us promising to drop them in their village,” she recalled.
