Hari Chhayaa Social Forestry Foundation

We’ve been over here at Shreenivas Apartment on Baner Road for a while now, right across from where the United Western Bank used to be. It’s a busy spot, but we try to keep our focus on the trees and the land. Most of the work happens outside, away from the desk at A/8, where we deal with the paperwork. We started this foundation because we saw how much the local landscape was changing. There aren't as many green patches as there used to be. Our days are mostly spent coordinating with folks who want to plant more saplings or look after existing forest areas. It’s not fancy work, and we get our hands dirty quite a bit. Sometimes the logistics of moving plants around the district get a bit complicated, but we manage. People stop by the office to ask about what kind of trees grow well in the local soil or how they can help out with social forestry projects. We don't have a big corporate team, just a few of us who care about the environment and want to make sure the next generation has some shade to sit in. It’s a slow process, growing a forest, so we take it one day at a time. The office is small, and you might find us drinking tea and discussing where the next batch of saplings is going. It’s just how we do things here in Pune, keeping it simple and focusing on the dirt and the rain.