Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Dec 25: The road leading to Big Bazaar from Satya Nagar Thursday attracted curious onlookers as a man disguised like Santa Claus was seen driving a bullock cart and distributing plant saplings to anybody and everybody within sight, as a bunch of students walked along the cart shouting ‘Trees for free, trees!’.
“The idea was to cultivate a culture of gifting trees among the community. We have been doing this for the last two years on several occasions. In fact, we sometimes go to someone’s marriage party and gift them saplings as well,” said Aman Dikshit, an engineering graduate, who was playing Santa. He said he wanted to do his bit towards saving the planet from global warming and climate change, and said he has been volunteering for the group since its inception.
The members of the group are all graduates in different disciplines, but with one similarity: a mission to plant thousands of trees, for which they have a tagline as well – ‘Gift tree for tree’. So far, the group has distributed around 10,000 saplings.
“Christmas is a festival of giving gifts, so we thought why not have a Santa distributing trees to people today,” said Deepsha Dhal, a law student of KIIT. “Initially, we bought saplings on our own and gifted them to everyone, but after we approached the government, we’ve been getting free saplings.”
The student group has also roped in state-run oil firm Bharat Petroleum for its initiative which has been helping them by providing saplings.
“On Christmas, we are distributing saplings of jamun, amla, bakul and bahara. These plants can be grown in avenues of our houses. Within half an hour we have gifted around 200 saplings,” said Anvesh, another volunteer and an engineering graduate.
The bullock card has a sled as well which carried the ‘Tree for tree’ message attached to it. The cart also had a passenger called ‘Dedi Loco’ who distributed saplings while Santa drove the cart.
“Dedi Loco means tree man in a tribal language and we came up with the name to make it sound like some sort of green superhero who wears a green robe and a mask on his face to promote our mission,” said Dimple Patnaik, a masters in development communication and a volunteer for the cause.
“We just want people to celebrate greenery instead of destroying it mindlessly,” Dedi Loco told Orissa Post.
Meanwhile, Akanksha Raj, a Delhi University student who’s on a vacation in the city, was full of excitement on seeing the cart. She grabbed one of the saplings with a big smile.
“I’m going to plant this amla sapling in my garden. I think it’s a great initiative by the group for a cause.”
Another youngster, Sneha Singh, also got drawn to the cart while doing her Christmas shopping. She was also given a sapling. “These days it’s hard to find saplings to grow trees in our houses. Such initiatives that bring saplings to your doorstep will certainly encourage people to grow more plants.”
When asked why they used a bullock cart, Anant Prasad, a full-time volunteer, said, “Because it’s eco-friendly. You don’t need petrol to drive it.”