A Tree Walk for kids at Nageswara Rao Park

From the Mylapore Times, April 9th 2013

When my friend invited me for a ‘Tree Walk’  at Nageswara Rao Park I agreed more for my daughter’s sake than my own. As we waited for the Walk to start, Vagesh, a class IV student of PSBB School, narrated a story to the kids. It was relaxing to sit under the shade of the Pipal tree and listen to this little boy talking animatedly.
When Babu of ‘Nizhal’ started explaining about the beautiful and statuesque trees near the Chess Square, I realised that the tree walk could be interesting to adults too. We started with the huge Pipal tree or ‘Arasa maram’ at the centre of the park. Babu gave the children many interesting facts about the huge trees surrounding the Chess Square like the Fish tail Palm tree, Copper pod tree, Java cassia tree and the Rain tree.

I was glad that we had such a well maintained park in our neighbourhood.  It is heartening to see that the once neglected park is now abuzz with activity, Sunday morning kutcheris, evening tree walks and storytelling. Inspite of the heat and humidity, it was indeed refreshing to be outdoors and watch the children engrossed in a tree walk, collecting different types of leaves, flowers and seeds.

Childrens Space, a library for kids under the age of 10, based in Alwarpet (http://www.childrensspacechennai.com), organised the tree walk in association with “Nizhal’, an NGO in the city (http://www.nizhaltn.org).  The library plans to hold such walks once a month so as to help children get more interested and involved with nature at an early age.