Growing forests in India’s concrete jungles: The Eco-Warrior from Bhopal

Sakshi Bhardwaj’s love for plants started with growing a few saplings in discarded bottles in the balcony of her city dwelling. One day, noticing the rising temperatures and decreasing greenery in her urban hometown of Bhopal, Sakshi asked herself ‘What if I could do more?’. Since then, she has made it her mission to bring nature back to our cities by converting barren land into thriving green spaces.

It started in 2020, when Sakshi picked her first patch of dry land near her house and converted it into Bhopal’s first ‘Oxygen Bank’ by relentlessly planting and caring for the space. People came from far and wide to see the miraculous green oasis in the heart of the city and, inspired by its success, Sakshi launched a movement called Jungle Vase.

Under Jungle Vase, Sakshi and her team have expanded micro-forestry, permaculture and sustainable landscaping into six mini-forests across Bhopal, Delhi, Indore and Gwalior. It takes them about 3-4 months to create a new project site but even after that, Sakshi says they regularly check on all their sites to make sure nobody is taking advantage of their social work because “trees aren’t meant to be commercialised”.

By cultivating her hobby into a green revolution, Sakshi’s selfless success not only made her the face of Swachh Bharat Bhopal, but also bestowed her with the highest honour of representing India on a global stage at the United Nations’ climate change conference, COP29.

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