Saplings at this shaadi

The village of Borala lies at the foothills of the Satpura range also known as the Bajada zone The talukamdashAnjangao Surjimdashin Amravati district was till now famous for betel leaves and the best piper longum long pepper in Maharashtra Then last week it grabbed headlines for a weddingMangesh Chaudhari and Nivedita Harne tied the knot on July 13 in a mostly ecofriendly wedding Next to their bamboo mandap was a diorama about the correlation of trees to Vitthal a local version of Vishnu tigers and the forts of MaharashtraMukesh ChaudhariThe last of four siblings Mangesh is the son of farmers Usha and Prakash The idea came from his elder brother Mukesh who works in the Pune office of special reformer Sindhutai Sakpal Mukesh is a naturalist and fort conservationistldquoWe felt our wedding was an apt occasion to talk about the environmentrdquo says Mangesh who works as administration staff in the Daryapur Tehsil office ldquoMy friends were quite taken We had no firecrackers and instead of welcoming guests with a shawl and coconut we gave them plantsrdquoMangesh and his wife NiveditaThe bride Nivedita tells Sunday midday that she was more happy that her wedding presented a message of sustainbility ldquoI grew up in the village and as an adult I can see that we have somewhere lost our sense of duty to Mother Nature I hope that the wedding inspires brides not to make their special day a strain on Earthrsquos resourcesrdquo she addsA few moments into the conversation Mukeshrsquos experience of 22 years in rural Maharashtrarsquos grassroot conservation efforts comes through ldquoAs soon as my brotherrsquos marriage was fixed I decided we would not contribute to pollution and that the message of protecting nature should come throughrdquo he says over the phone from Pune ldquoThe invitations went out as PDFs through email and WhatsApp and talked about the importance of conserving forts trees and educating girlsrdquoForgoing band baaja baraat the family just showed up at the mandapmdashunheard of in villages like theirs ldquoWe felt that a baraat with a horse was an unnecessary extravagance that creates noise pollution and uses an animal for vanity We were ridiculed by some villagers who felt we had gone mad but thatrsquos fine My father whose livelihood depends on Mother Nature understood what message the family was putting outrdquo says Mangesh The family also gifted 1000 saplings of useful species such as bel that people use for Mahashivratri and are often chopped down for puja as well as jamun sitaphal custard apple and peru guava ldquoWe fell short of 300 saplings because as the word got around many came to ask for morerdquo says Mangesh ldquoThe tiger tableau became a selfie point In it we talked about how tigers are being poached and how we must go on safaris to understand the whole ecosystem and not just take picturesrdquoAt the venue a musician played the shehnai and food was served in a pangat on the ground on banana leaves ldquoWe wanted to avoid the buffet system because itrsquos a criminal waste of foodrdquo says Mukesh ldquoAlso in a traditional pangat you can have conversations organically with guests instead of isolating yourself in a corner with a platerdquo Decoration was barebones except for the stage for the married couple ldquoWe kept potted plants throughoutrdquoIf anyone thinks this was to cut corners the truth is they put their money where their conscience is Mukesh says ldquoSaplings are not cheap and we gave Agrade quality ones We were very clear what we wanted Maybe chandan saplings for the next big occasionhelliprdquo