Kusum-tai's world of trees,
birds & bees
The clearest way into the
Universe is through a
forest wilderness!' - John
Muir, naturalist and
e n v i r o n m e n t a l
philosopher, who was an
advocate of preservation of
wilderness in America way
back in 19th century.
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-anacre
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.
Kusum Dahivalkar has created an extensive nursery with some 2,000
plus varieties of saplings of medicinal plants and herbs.
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.
Her love for the green
comes through as one sees
her interacting with her twoyear-
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.
Kusum Dahivalkar and her nephew Chirantan, with whom she runs a
workshop programme wherein she takes participants through the
process of cultivating herbs and plants.
"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 singlemindedly.
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 halfan-
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.
Kusum Dahivalkar, a plantation
officer in the Social Forestry
Department in Nashik, has made
it her mission to inspire people
to live as close to nature as
possible.
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-thecounter
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 over 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.
When she takes up
landscaping gigs or starts
working on creating a garden
for corporate office or for any
locality, she makes sure that
she has a mix of sustainable
plants and decorative
flowering plants or she makes
different sections like a herbal
garden, kitchen garden, rose
garden, orchid garden, spice
garden, etc., so that visitors
get to see all kinds of plants in
a single allotment. And she
fervently hopes that
authorities and the 'aam janta'
(ordinary people) "wake up to
the danger our planet is facing
from our deep neglect of our
indigenous flora and fauna".
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 Feature
Service)