Barren Hill Made Green by Collective Action

Kothrud is a western suburb of Pune City. Folks in the 50-60 age group taken up the issue of greening the hill in their are. Pune city is surrounded by hills. With increasing traffic and 'developement' pollution is increasing, trees are felling and hilltops are getting encroached. Instead of keep pointing fingures at government, these folks took it up on themselves to act.

It was a barren hill with depleted soil cover. It was not going to be easy to grow greenery there. Folks started in monsoon of 1998. First stones and rocks had to be roved, pits were dug and many trees of native species were planted. Scarcity of water and fertile soil was taken into consideration. Its a hard work offering various failures and demanding trials-and-errors. After different attempts these folks have succeeded in surviving some trees.

This is truly an initiative 'of the people, by the people, for the people. More participation, some government support and duplicating such initiative in different localities and different aspects of our urban lifestyle can take us a long way towards better life.