The Story of 14 Trees

Abstract

Project 14 Trees is a grassroots effort for ecology restoration and nature conservation. Our mission is to undo damage caused to nature by humans, regrow forests on ecologically devastated patches of land, restore ecology, rebuild biodiversity, generate sustainable livelihoods, inspire all stakeholders (tribals, villagers, urban dwellers) to engage and act and promote harmonious, sustainable coexistence with nature.

The project started in 2013 near village Vetale in Khed taluka. The piece of land shown in this picture was completely barren, full of gravel, without soil and without access to water. Today the same piece of land hosts a lush green forest with 200+ native varieties of trees. This remarkable transformation has been achieved in eight years relying only on rain water — without bringing piped water from outside, without transporting water using tankers and without digging bore-wells.

Inspired by the success of the project, local farmers, gram panchayat members, NGOs from the nearby villages are voluntarily coming forward to engage with the project to make their barren lands available for tree plantation. Success of the 14 Trees pilot project is spreading the message of hope and optimism among all stakeholders. Local youths and nature enthusiasts from Pune have started coming forward to volunteer their time and energy. A definite potential now exists to expand the ongoing work over a bigger region.

About the speaker

Pravin is an entrepreneur and a wireless security researcher. He was Co-founder & CTO of Mojo Networks -- a product venture which started in year 2003 from Pune and grew to become a leading provider of Cloud Managed Secure Wi-Fi for the global market. In 2018, the company was acquired by Arista.

Pravin started his research career at IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center and AT&T Labs where he was a lead member of Mobile IP, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth research teams. He has numerous research papers and 27 patents to his credit. Pravin is also the recipient of IIT Kanpur Distinguished Alumnus Award of 2019. For the past seven years, Pravin has been pursuing his passion for nature conservation by reforesting a large tract of barren land near Pune. This project has now grown into a non-profit, social enterprise named 14 Trees Foundation (https://14trees.org) .

Pravin has B.Tech. in Computer Science from IIT Kanpur, India and MS/PhD in computer science from the University of Maryland, College Park, USA.