Aravalli Calling: Trail Towards Stewardship

Degraded, Damaged and Destroyed!
How? - Mining, Deforestation and Over-Exploitation

An ancient mountain range that has survived a collision with the EurasianPlate, now struggles to survive under the pressure of human greed andmyopic policies. This story of a dying mountain range is fortunately being rewritten byiamgurgaon.
The second major activity was the forest therapy facilitated by Mr. ZainKhan, a conservationist from Delhi. With the ecological crisis across theglobe, the state of affairs in our country and of course the harsh winter,one gets consumed by all the negativity around and forgets that we are inthe middle of the Anthropocene and moving towards irreversible andunprecedented catastrophic changes.The forest therapy gave anopportunity for the participants to connect back with nature andexperience its healing services.

The parkguides intrigued the participants with fun facts about the several plantspecies, from making the participants chew a leaf which numbed theirtaste buds, to medicinal plants which are extensively utilized in AYUSH.The participants also got a chance to indulge in bird watching and thewalk ended with a treat from the park guides, to a tea brewed from aparticular native plant of the Aravallis.

Overall, the walk was a wonderful and rejuvenating experience for boththe organizers and the participants, as everyone had the opportunity toleave their toxic lifestyle from the concrete jungles of NCR and detox inthe old Aravalli range. The few who braved the harsh winter had a lot totake away from the walk. The winning story of the Aravalli BiodiversityPark spearheaded by iamgurgaon and its friends have motivated IYCN topersistently organize more of such recreational walks to educate,encourage and enable more people to volunteer for a sustainable future ofall lifeforms.