The New Volunteer...

With the new NEP in place and the whole concept of ‘experiential learning’ in vogue, we at Jeevitnadi have been getting a lot of students from the age of 13 to 24 years to work with us. The mandate of these kind of projects are usually forced on the students as part of the curriculum and so, it is sometime difficult to turn this next generation into volunteers with us..

However exceptions can prove the rule.. and I would like to introduce you all to one such little friend of ours. An avid birder from the age of 7, a keen observer and voracious learner is Aakash Athaide, now aged 13.

Hes been our neighbour at Irene Towers and visits our adopted stretch at Ram Mula Confluence since over 4 years now. He was part of the Nadi Shala we had at our stretch, and was the youngest student with the most brilliant questions to every resource person we had.

Our society – Irene Towers, Aloma county on the Aundh Balewadi link road shares its wall with the Ram Nadi. So, a stretch of Ram nadi can be observed just my standing on the parapet of the building and looking out. After the NGT case of sandmining, we have been able to widen the width of Ram nadi at this location, however the stretch is not easily accessible to anyone. This does act as a benefit too as whatever waste is seen there, is from what the river is bringing from upstream or the illegal vasti which is also situated on the river bank.

As a concerned and conscious citizen, we see all these issues. But Aakash from this February, has been spending time by the society wall with his binocs and furnished a wonderful 2 page document for us. The report is called Ramnadi Rejuvenation – which includes his observations and recommendations and the other page with a list of 37 bird species he has observed- one observed later and added! (To be noted .. the 2 pager is hand written with reused paper of his last academic years exam paper 😊)

    

In todays world where we are senselessly cutting 100 year old trees and having unplanned development effecting rivers of the city, I see a huge ray of hope in Aakash.

I see this child looking at abundance all around him and giving simple solutions which can solve problems locally. If we all Adopted river stretches next to where we live, probably huge unmanageable problems could be solved, before they become a crisis situation.

Welcoming our little volunteer to Jeevitnadi!
We plan to have a walk at the stretch curated by Aakash soon… look out for that!!

Shubha

Jeevitnadi, Ram Mula Confluence.