Under the theme of World Environment Day – “Only One Earth”, Youngistaan Foundation, a city based NGO hosted a 2 hours trek at Khajaguda Hills with over 30 people attending the trek in the early hours of Sunday, 5th June 2022.
The trek aimed to engage the trekkers to walk and appreciate nature for all its splendor and beauty while providing a practical exposure to youngsters on how to take better care of our beautiful ecosystem.
More than 70% of the participants were trekking for the very first time in their lives. They spend hours on the trail, climbing around boulders, rock hopping, ascending hills, bird watching, learning about the forest ecosystem, hiking, scrambling, caving, passing through Zigzag passages through caves, and many more knowledge exchange activities. Towards the end of the trek, people pledged to become allies and start small from their homes to conserve the environment and reduce our carbon footprint by ending single use plastic, planting more native saplings, using public transport and many more.
One of the members from the trek, Nikitha Devi, a volunteer and corporate employee said, “The trekking was one of its kind experiences. I got to know several things about nature, birds, rocks and much more. Being close to nature is always soothing. Humans should do their part in not disturbing the ecosystem instead of coexisting.”
Another participant, Sai Kiran, speaking about the trek said. “I used to have a doubt that how could people strive that hard in conserving the environment, but really I could feel that today, in such a small space, noticing that many things have cleared that to me, and really it was a memorable experience.”
Youngistaan Foundation is a youth-powered organization that is known for creating one of a kind learning experiences to discuss social issues, strike behavioral change. Speaking to the founder and director of Youngistaan Foundation, Mr. Arun Daniel Yellamaty said “Instead of organizing panel discussions, this year we wanted to provide a practical exposure about the environment. As part of our Climate Action program, the team planned to host a trek as it helps in understanding nature and the environment carefully. People get more aware of the problems and harmful activities performed in the ecosystem but these issues can only be resolved when people have accurate knowledge and understanding of the problems.” He also added that everyone is responsible for conserving our environment for our future generations and encouraged people to join as a volunteer to make change happen.