Strawberry Fields Class VIII Student Turns Green Warrior

By Samachar Vishesh News

Chandigarh 13^th June:- Sumeir Bhatia, a student of 8^th standard,studying in Strawberry Fields High School, Sec 26 here, was so moved by an article he read in a newspaper, about 500 trees which were going to be axed for building a flyover in Chandigarh, that he started his small green initiative.

Sumeir Bhatia said that he questioned himself, what is more beneficial for us, sustaining our environment or infrastructure development at the cost of it?  He feels that such development should certainly not come at the expense of environmental preservation.

Sumeir took it upon himself to contribute through a small step, towards improving green cover. He reached out to several villages of Punjab in the vicinity of Chandigarh, where rapid infrastructural development and deforestation had lead to lack of ground water. He stated that in a small initiative we organized tree plantation drives, where over 500 trees were planted to give a fillip to afforestation of those areas.

The initiative nicknamed 'The Tree Box' used 'Beej Balls' to create green areas.  He said that learnt about this unique system of beej ball afforestation during the initiative. These balls are made up of clay, compost and seeds. They don't need any extra care; one can simply throw them in an open ground. They are crafted in a way that they grow fast without any human care.

It is noteworthy that scattering beej balls is any easy way to help a struggling ecosystem. These have an advantage over scattering native plant seeds, which are often eaten up by insects, birds, and rodents or washed away by the rain.

Sumeir Bhatia added that in Beej balls, seeds are protected inside a ball. When it rains, the clay in the ball holds the water and helps the seeds to germinate. When the seeds germinate, the compost helps the seedlings grow.

It is pertinent to state here that deforestation has resulted in not only rapid climatic change but also loss of biodiversity not just in plants but in the animals and insects dependant on them too. The data collected by the World Resources Institute reveals that about 80 percent of the forest cover of the planet has already been lost due to deforestation.