Nicodemus Wilderness Project -- Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists

Since the starting of life on earth, we humans have always exploited nature. Be it the basic needs of an ancient earlyman or modern day
people for their basic needs of food, shelter and industries. But sometimes you feel that you should also give something to your motherland
especially when there is so much hike about global warming, pollution and deforestation. Fortunately I got the chance to repay the debt in
some form at last. During the summer in May, 2015 I was approached by an old friend of mine and he talked about a project on which he was also
working. The project was "One Crore(10 million) trees in one hour" initiated by an NGO named "SAMBHAV". This was a project which required young
energetic individuals of Punjab to create a major change in the current pollution levels of Punjab. At first I was shocked to hear about their
target and that too in one hour! But as the name of NGO said "SAMBHAV" which in itself means POSSIBLE, and after hearing their way of completing
the project I was deucedly inspired and readily joined that project. The plan was to empower the local people of Punjab at the grass root level
and encourage them to adopt 5 saplings per person and vow to take care of them for their life. It was actuallly a project of making yourselves
and others feel empowered, proud and responsible citizens as told us by our mentor. Out of around 35 million prople of Punjab, our plan was to
make aware about that project to atleast 20 million people , out of which if atleast 2 million are inspired the project could be made succesful
by encouraging them to plant 5 saplings each. Now here comes my role in the project. I was a volunteer leader in that project and I relentlessly
campaigned for the project with an unstoppable enthusiasm and visited almost every nearby village of my city Patiala with our Patiala team and
inspired thousands of common people to join with our project. Along with that I alone inspired around a team of 44 people from Patiala city and
"earth hour" event on July 19, 2015 and planted 220 plants and trees in different areas of Patiala in just one hour. Now comes the point what did
I as an individual get from doing all this? You must be wondering why this a mere teenager going every street, every village and city spending a
significant part of his limited time in this project. I'll let you know all that I gained from that project and would willingly take other such
projects in future too.

What I have gained from this Project :

->This project enabled me to try my skills of network marketing. Going door to door and encouraging people toward this noble cause in today's world
of "I, me and myself" thinking was hard, I admit! There were many low times when I thought that I should just give up and concentrate in something useful.
But my mother's motivation helped me walk out through the hard times and encouraged me to complete the task to the utmost satisfaction. And guess what,
in this great journey, I discovered a new and powerful side of me which I was never really aware of.

->Speaking with someone strange is always the most difficult task for an average person. This project enabled me to overcome this fear of mine and improved my
public speaking skills a lot.

->This project also gave me an opportunity to work as a team member as well as a team leader simultaneusly. My leadership skills got improved, I came to learn
the ways of handling complaints and disputes of team members and peacefully make out a reliable solution out of it.

->Also we as the Patiala team organised an event in the local mall as a celebration and promotional event of our project and the great work we had done till then.
This also gave me an exposure in learning how manage people and organise a succesful event.

->As a team leader of my 44 member team I had to do paperwork and handle records of commitments and also during the plant distribution period i.e. two days before
the final day of July 19, 2015 I was responsible of providing saplings to my team members and keep record of every sapling sanctioned from the Govt. nursery.

->And finally I felt proud and powerful about myself that I had done a great thing for my environment and society. because at this present time I feel like the hero
of my locality as every one, who never knew me before knows me and appreciate my noble work. It won't be wrong to say that I really feel thankful to the plants and
trees and this project which gave me such an oppotunity to find a better person in me.

And finally when the result came that a littele above 10 million trees and plants have been planted around whole Punjab on July 19, 2015 and our efforts bore fruits
we were at the cloud 9 and there was a little celebration that our patiala team had and we were appreciated by the NGO for our efforts in the project and got certificates
of appreciation.

Note: Total of about 25000 trees and plants were planted in Patiala district. The saplings were provided by Govt. nurseries on subsidised rates which were paid by the NGO
Also some people volunteered to buy the saplings on their own and plant them.
Most of the volunteers were of the ages 13-21.