Adopting a Tree? Why not! Let’s Befriend One!!!

By Ruchi Sharma

Friends! Without them whole life is incomplete and that is a universal truth. Throughout our life we make friends be it in childhood, in college, at workplace or simply pen friends BUT finding that one friend with whom you could share anything and everything, who sees your highs and lows and never leaves your side, now that is very difficult. If you have that one friend in life, consider yourself the luckiest! But even if you don’t, you can adopt a FRIEND who just gives you unconditional love and support. You can adopt a PET or a TREE! Yes, you read it right, you can adopt a TREE! Though pets are the best companion a woman can have but trust us a tree is equally special. Trees as Unconditional Friends!

Since schooling we all know how trees give us oxygen, fruits, provide shade and what not. But have you ever thought of actually making one of them your companion? You can actually share all your secrets with it, and it will never tell a soul! No, we are not being crazy! Trees and plants actually feel your moods! If you get angry with them or love them, they understand it all. Multiple studies have proved how trees bloom or wilt away not because of water and sunlight but because of their owner’s love or negligence. In today’s apartment culture, there is rarely any proper space to build lush gardens or beautiful greens, but having a flower pot or a cute tree in your balcony is all it takes to make that difference. Not only seeing that lively green daily will make your heart grow fonder but spending a few minutes taking care of it and seeing it grow every day is almost therapeutic!

What does WWF India Say?

It is not only us who are talking about it, WWF India initiated a campaign back in 2005 and started this amazing drive that encouraged individuals and organisations to not only plant but also care for native species of trees. This was to make our planet a greener place. They asked for donations from people and then even sent the picture of the planted tree and regular updates from the plantation sites! To adopt a tree, they charge Rs. 200 per tree and send you a donation receipt and also an 80G certificate. Not only that you can be a part of it by not spending anything and actually just planting a sapling and taking care of it. All you then need to do is take a pic of the saplings and tag @wwfindia on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter with #adoptatree! You can know more about it on their website.

We go one step ahead!

We are actually asking you to make that tree a part of your life! Here’s why:

•  It is an unconditional friend who would listen to all your sense and nonsense without cribbing!
• A personal secret keeper- It won’t tell a soul!
• Aesthetic Beauty- Even a simple green tree is so beautiful that finding it every day in your space is bound to make you smile!
• Health benefits- now health benefits of making the planet greener are not unknown to anyone of us but cleaner and pure air is something all of us need and we all need to do our bit there.
• A fruit or flower or a simple plant- Now fruit trees give you fruits that make their utility quotient go up but might not be feasible for small spaces or just might be perfect, while flower trees look and smell great in those little spaces and might just be the one for you. Don’t ignore simple trees like money plant, neem or ferns, they are amazing best friends too!
• Kitchen garden? You can even build a mini kitchen garden, taking care of those little beauties and when they chip in their bit making your cooking adventures fresher and delicious smelling will be like a cherry on the cake.

Organisations that Encourage it

There are quite a few organisations that encourage you to adopt a tree but either they seek donation (if you can’t take care of one on your own but still want to make our planet greener) OR provide you with saplings! Here are a few of them:

WWF India

World Wide Fund for Nature- India’s campaign ‘Adopt a Tree’ seeks donations and even encourages you to plant and take care of a tree on your own. You can check their website for more details.

Treedom

They are a platform that allow you to plant a tree from a distance and follow the story of the project online. They actually have this unique and cute feature of gifting Hi-tech trees to your loved ones. Maybe you can gift one to your dear and near ones for this Christmas too. Know more about it on their website. They have tree horoscopes too!

CATCH Foundation

They also work on the lines of adopting a tree by giving donations. What’s more amazing is that they give you a certificate of the same as well and you can even track your tree i.e. know all about the trees that you adopted. You can check more on their website.

Reforest India

Encouraging to plant and gift a tree they even allow you to choose an occasion for which they even give a certificate which looks like a card! Check their website for more.

Some more organisations that work on similar lines are SayTrees, TreesForAChange, Ferns N Petals, SankalpTaru.org and many more.

Though instead of just adopting a tree we encourage you to get at least one personal green friend home and take care of it and grow with it!!!!

Let us stop limiting ourselves by just posting pictures and putting in hashtags #gogreen etc. on social media for making our planet green and instead get a real green friend in our life!