Early on Sunday morning a motely crowd of Rotarians, R’Anns and a few nature loving friends of Rotarians boarded a bus at the Poona Club for the journey to Vetale village. Piping hot Vada-pav with green chillies and chatni for accompaniment, courtesy Rtn Giri, were enjoyed by all while the music system on the bus kept us entertained with some old Bollywood songs. The 62 km long journey took about 2 hours, and we reached the site of the 14 Tree Foundation just after 10 am. A slight drizzle made the ground conditions rather slushy to walk on. We were greeted warmly by Praveen Bhagwat, the Founder of the foundation, and our guide for the next 6 hours. We started at a spot from where this picture was taken on the 28th of March 2013, and alongside it is the picture taken from the same spot by Rtn PP Sanjiv Kumar during our visit. In ten years a parcel of land has been converted into a lush green forest, and there is more to it, no soil or water has been brought to the site from outside. All the water used there is through Rainwater Harvesting, and the soil has been rejuvenated using organic agents such as bacteria etc. After a light breakfast and a cup of tea, we set off to see the water harvesting site. After failing to strike water at two sites, they decided to dig a pit on the way of a rainwater stream, and still had to wait for another three years to see water appearing in the earlier pits too. So they have successfully restored the ground water in the area too. We were then guided to the ‘Rotary Grove’, so named because all the plantation there has been done by Rotarians of our club and some members of the Rotary Club of Nigdi. A tree each was planted by us and our names recorded in their registry. Now these trees will be nurtured by the 140 strong tribal working force of 14 Trees. Incidentally the trek to Rotary Grove from the Base Camp is about 3 Km, and the fact that it was drizzling made it a challenging one. In the interest of safety, the over 70s were exempted from undertaking this trek over undulating terrain. All the ‘planters’ returned to the base camp at about 2 pm, dog-tired but full of josh, and satisfaction of having completed a noble deed. A hot Maharashtrian lunch awited us, and we devoured it gladly. An interesting post-lunch session with Praveen followed, wherein he told us the significance of the name – 14 Trees. I shall not delve upon it here, as I would then be spoiling the surprise for subsequent visitors of our club, because as we did last year we hope to contribute substantially to the project this year too, and wew plan multiple visits.