User:AlethaTavares/Kalpavriksh

Kalpavriksh is a non-profit organization based in Delhi and Pune, India. Kalpavriksh works on environmental and social issues. A group of dynamic students came together in 1979 to campaign against the destruction and thus save the Delhi Ridge Forest. Kalpavriksh works on local, national and global levels, and is registered under the Societies Registration Act (S-17439.

Kalpavriksh believes that a country can develop meaningfully only when ecological sustainability and social equity are guaranteed, and a sense of respect for, and oneness with nature, and fellow humans is achieved. Kalpavriksh has often taken a position on a number of environment-development issues, more often than not confronting the state through measures ranging from protest letters to street demonstrations.

The Philosophy

Kalpavriksh is a name taken from Indian mythology and denotes a mythical tree which could grant all your wishes. 'Kalpa' in Sanskrit means imagination and 'vriksh' is a tree. Thus, the name stands for 'a tree of imagination'.

Philosophically, the wish granting aspect of 'Kalpavriksh' is supposed to be accompanied by the power to make that wish come true. Thus, Kalpavriksh is symbolic of a more proactive process than just asking for a wish: you could actually make it happen if you so desired.

Thus, it was an important reason to select the name for the environmental group- Kalpavriksh. The group, Kalpavriksh, thus, is not a mere figment of imagination. Instead, it's a wish the members granted for themselves, a wish for a saner environment for our country and the world, and work towards attaining it.