This Article is From Jul 19, 2016

Meet The Environmentalist Who Is Teaching Delhi How To Climb Trees

Verhaen Khanna, 27, has been training people to climb trees to connect with Nature.

New Delhi: A young environmentalist in Delhi is trying to cure what he calls 'tree blindness' by helping people who are caught in their city lives to connect with Nature.

Verhaen Khanna, 27, has been training people of all age groups to climb trees for the last eight months. He started the New Delhi Nature Society in 2014 to help people unwind and grow an affinity to having trees around them.

Radhika, who regularly attends Verhaen's workshops, feels the capital needs many more trees and climbing trees is the best way to form a connection with nature.

Delhi has a green cover of 20.2 per cent, according to data provided by the Public Works Department. A research conducted by Verhaen's NGO says that grass over four inches is also counted under the green cover in Delhi, and the first ever tree counting census in the capital, which began in 2015, has still not come up with an official estimate.

Verhaen feels that many real estate companies are able to get environmental clearances because people don't object to it. He says the more people visit the green covers of the city the less likely it is to be damaged in the future.
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