Lucknow :

A canvas bag on his shoulders and a motorbike bedecked with posters and messages for afforestation, 45-year-old Lucknowite Chandra Bushan Tiwari has been on a mission to plant fruit-bearing trees across the country. On January 26, 2006, Tiwari had set himself the target of planting 1 lakh saplings along the river Gomti. By September 2014, he had achieved the task of seeding 96,000 trees.

Sowing peepal, gular, jamun, neem, banyan and other flower- and fruit-bearing trees, Tiwari, who was a teacher at Kendriya Vidyalaya, left his profession for the cause. He started teaching children of daily wage labourers, educating them about the ecosystem. “Lucknow used to be a city of gardens, but all that is left now is stones. We have spoiled the ecological balance and it is us who have to work to get that back.”

Raising 700 trees around the Gomti basin at Baikunth Dham, Khatu Shyam Ghat, Shani temple, Hanuman Setu, Kudiya Ghat and around Chandrika Devi temple, Tiwari circumnavigates the city with plants and seeds along with him at all times, gifting them to people

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / by Yusra Husain / March 15th, 2015