Exclusive! International day of forests: We are not saving the Earth by planting trees: Juhi Chawla

­Juhi Chawla started an eco-friendly ini­ti­at­ive for years with a ges­ture — plant­ing trees for friends and fam­ily as a gift on their spe­cial days. Instead of tra­di­tional presents, the actor prefers cel­eb­rat­ing occa­sions like birth­days or anniversar­ies by plant­ing sap­lings.

On Inter­na­tional Day of Forests today, Juhi insists how this prac­tise has become a part of her being. “Recently, a cousin asked me, ‘you have been plant­ing trees for so many people, and Jay (Mehta, hus­band) and your kids, when are you doing it for me?’ I found it amus­ing as, in the begin­ning, no one cared, but now it is expec­ted of me,” she tells us.

While the actor feels glad when people appre­ci­ate her ges­ture, she emphas­ises on why it is the need of the hour: “Trees don’t need us, we need them. We are not sav­ing the Earth [by plant­ing trees], we do this to save ourselves.”

Shar­ing how this prac­tise of her came into effect, the actor adds, “So many envir­on­mental move­ments begin with a lot of enthu­si­asm, but die out in time. I thought, how about I pledge trees for my friends and fam­ily on their birth­days instead of send­ing them flowers? It will become an annual thing and they would flour­ish for gen­er­a­tions. Some­where even the winds would carry the fresh­ness from those trees to all our chil­dren. Thus it began, and I’m so happy that today, we have crossed our tar­get of plant­ing one lakh trees, with many people get­ting inspired to join this ini­ti­at­ive.”