How Palluyir Trust’s nature walks are mapping Chennai’s biodiversity
Chennai: How difficult can drawing a tree be? That was the question participants pondered during a unique tree-drawing walk organised by Palluyir Trust, a nature education and research organisation, at the Theosophical Society, Adyar, on October 31.
Guiding the exercise was Karunya Baskar, a nature educator and designer at the Trust, with participants sketching the famed 450-year-old banyan tree on the campus. The walk was part of Palluyir’s attempt to get Chennaiites to look closely at leaves, branches, stems and the lives they shelter.”Drawing becomes a tool of observation that helps people develop a deeper connection,” Karunya said.
Palluyir Trust, founded in 2021 by naturalist Yuvan Aves, attempts to make Chennaiites aware of the tangible and intangible natural world around them.”We have beaches, wetlands, and trees on our streets. We live amidst them without kinship or a relationship with them,” Aves says. “In the city we experience a deep emancipation from our natural environment. Drawing trees and other sessions aim to regrow that connection through observation, which then fosters a sense of care.”
The Trust conducts around 50 to 60 nature walks a year, with one or two walks almost every week. From shore walks and butterfly walks to soundscape sessions, tree walks at CRRT Park and ant-society explorations on Stella Campus, the walks focus on even seemingly empty plots that can be home to frogs, dragonflies and insects.
Palluyir also runs nature-based learning programmes in Greater Chennai Corporation schools and is collaborating with the Institute of Mathematical Sciences for teacher training, aiming to foster curiosity and affinity for nature among urban youth.
