Campaign To Foster Sibling Bond Between Newborn & Tree Begins In Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: Bakul Foundation started its ‘Twin Tree’ campaign at state-run Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar on Monday.

“Under the campaign, plants will be gifted to the parents of the newborns and they are expected to take care of both their children and their trees,” Head of Gynaecology department Dr Sasmita Behuria explained.

Twenty-five mothers and their attendants were given plants by the doctors of Capital Hospital led by Director Dr Sujata Mishra and Dedi Loku, the green superhero (Tree Man in the Kui language), who has been supporting this campaign.

The founder of Bakul, Sujit Mahapatra, said that they decided to begin the campaign on Rakhi Purnima as it was an appropriate occasion to establish sibling relationship between a child and a tree.  “It is aimed at promoting a personal relationship with trees and cultural practices around trees instead of following the mainstream impersonal tree plantation,” he said.

It has set a target to distributed 10,000 twin trees for the 10,000 children, who take birth in a year at the hospital.

The foundation has been promoting Memorial Plantation or gifting of trees on  birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and festivals such as Diwali, New Year or Valentine’s Day. “Hundreds of children from different schools have responded to our call to tie rakhis to trees and have shared their photos and videos with us,” he shared.