Woman green warrior in Nashik dedicates life to
draw people closer to nature
Surekha Kadapa-Bose|
Mumbai 18 Feb 2017
‘The clearest way into the Universe is through a
forest wilderness!’ - John Muir, naturalist and environmental philosopher, who
was an advocate of preservation of wilderness in America way back in 19th
century.
The 60-plus Kusum Dahivalkar lives up to Muir’s
philosophy each and every day. In fact, her life has been all about the forest,
the flora and fauna. A retired plantation officer in the Social Forestry
Department in Nashik, Maharashtra, she has made it her mission to inspire
people to save and plant trees, and live as close to nature as possible.
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Kusum Dahivalkar has made it
her mission to inspire people to live as close to nature as possible. (Photo:
Surekha Kadapa-Bose\WFS)
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Her love for the green comes through as one sees her interacting with her two-year-old granddaughter, Yashshree, who is playing with shrubs in her home nursery. As the toddler inadvertently tugs at the leaves of a creeper, Dahivalkar says, “Tell her [leaf], ‘Bala [child] don’t cry, I didn’t pull you. I just caressed you. I love you a lot.’”
Of course, the little one, who hasn’t even started
speaking coherently yet, emulates her granny’s voice and kisses the leaf! As
she indulgently looks on at the child moving around the green patch trying to
get a feel of the plants and the soil, Dahivalkar ponders, “Yashshree is lucky
she has plants to see, touch and feel. I wonder what will happen to her
grandchildren. Will they get to see verdant flora and fauna only in pictures?’’
For several years now, Dahivalkar has been visiting
inaccessible forest areas, meeting up with teachers from agricultural colleges
and plant scientists, and interacting with tribals who live as one with nature.
Sitting at her beautiful home in Nashik’s Pathardi neighbourhood she laughingly
admits that during her stint with the Social Forestry Department she took full
advantage of the indifference of her colleagues and attended every workshop,
lecture series and conference she possibly could across the country to acquire
knowledge about plants and their healing properties. “Everyone thought I was
insane to dedicate all my time to researching about plants,” she remarks. But
that was her true passion and she had no qualms is pursuing it single-mindedly.
She developed an abiding interest in the plant
world in childhood; she hails from a family of ayurveda pundits from Nizar
village on the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra, and began learning about
plants, roots and flowers from her grandfather and father at an age when girls
are generally more interested in playing with dolls. Taking up a career closely
connected with this line was only natural.
So committed is Kusum-tai, as she is fondly called,
to building awareness around conservation of plants that following her
superannuation she pooled in funds from gratuity, Provident Fund and other
savings to invest in half-an-acre of land on the outskirts of Nashik. Today,
she runs the Hirvepunya Institute on the property, which has her two-floor apartment
and a cozy conference room with a seating capacity of about 50 plus people
where Kusum-tai conducts her workshops. In the open space around the house she
has created an extensive nursery which has over 2,000 varieties of saplings of
medicinal plants and herbs collected from different parts of the country.
“My colleagues, friends and relatives tried to
dissuade me from buying land to set up a nursery. However, this had been my
dream and I had always wanted to impart my knowledge to as many people as I
could so that somehow we all could all do our bit to save the planet,” shares
Kusum-tai. Incidentally, she has been a single parent to her nephew, Chirantan
Parekh, who lost his parents when he was a toddler. She runs the Institute
along with him nowadays.
In the beginning, Chirantan, an Electronics and
Telecommunication engineer, too, was skeptical about Kusum-tai’s decision;
however, when he saw the kind of love and respect she commanded in her
professional group and the kind of response she received from those who
attended her workshops he came on board. In fact, since then he has become a
full-time advocate of cultivating plants and foods the organic way.
Indeed, Kusum-tai’s workshops are quite popular
with people signing up well in advance to secure their place. “It’s her passion
which is very contagious. If you spend a day with her, you will automatically
start looking at trees with a different perspective and instinctively start
caring for them,’’ remarks Milind Babar, a Nashik-based lawyer, who has been a
beneficiary of a workshop.
Dr Ujwala Kapse, an ayurveda doctor practicing in
the city, adds, “During the course of my education, I have learnt about the
medicinal plants. But what makes Kusum-tai’s three-day workshops unique is the
fact that she painstakingly explains the inimitable healing qualities of over
100-plus plants available in her own nursery.”
Her workshops also include a do-it-yourself guide
on identifying and propagating plants. “We learn to grow plants in pots either
through seeds or cuttings. Currently, I grow my own adulsa (Justicia adhatoda)
to treat cold and cough; Costus igneus or the insulin plant, to treat diabetes;
Peltophorum that helps keep BP in control; Aloe vera and, of course, varieties
of tulsi, and so on, in my own verandah. This has reduced our dependency on
over-the-counter allopathic medicines and increased our sensitivity to plant
life. A win-win really!” elaborates Rekha Choksi, a homemaker, who like Dr
Kapse and Babar has her own farm where they all put into practice the knowledge
they have gained from Kusum-tai’s workshops.
Talking about their work, Chirantan, who has gained
enough knowledge about the plants to ably assist his ‘Aayee’ (mother) says, “A
full-time course is for three days. For those who can’t sit through the entire
duration we conduct classes for an hour or two for 15 days. The cost per
workshop is a modest Rs 3,500.”
Like most environmentalists, Kusum-tai is concerned
with the indiscriminate felling of trees in the name of development and
replacing them with exotic species like the gulmohur, subabul or eucalyptus,
which are “hardly beneficial to the ecosystem although they grow fast”.
“The indigenous plants last for decades; at times,
even centuries. Their seeds need a minimum of six to 18 months to germinate and
then take years to stand tall and mature, in the process building an ecosystem
suitable for birds, animals and insects,” she points out.
Kusum-tai bemoans the quick-fix culture prevalent
in the forest department officials these days. “Unfortunately, every forest
officer knows about this, but they have to bow down to the pressure of the
authorities who demand the fast growing plants which end up doing more damage
than good,” she says, visibly agitated.
She signs off rather poignantly, with a quote from
Mahatma Gandhi: “What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror
reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another!” - Women's
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