Explainer· 1 min read
Why we chose neem for our 1-lakh sankalp
It grows on rubble, needs no chemicals, and one tree cools a street. The thinking behind the pledge.
By MeghVin Foundation
On 16 July 2026, a few days before the Jagannath Rath Yatra, we sowed neem seeds brought from Gujarat into fresh beds at Sindoor Valley and took a pledge: one lakh neem plants.
It grows where little else will
The slope at Sindoor Valley was red laterite and rubble. Neem takes to that kind of ground. Once it is established it needs almost no water, which matters on a hillside where every can has to be carried up.
It needs no chemicals
We only use organic methods on the site. When pests do come, we spray Dashparni Ark, a mixture we make ourselves from the leaves of ten plants. Neem is one of them.
It gives back for a century
A neem tree shades a road, cleans the air around it and can live for a hundred years. At ₹150 a sapling, including a year of care, it is the cheapest long-term good we know of.
How the pledge is going
- Seeds cleaned and dried on 25–26 July, then sown in beds
- Devotees planted neem along the Rath Yatra route from Belapur to Utsav Chowk on 24 July
- Seeds sown near the Shiv Mandir and Hanumanji Mandir on 3 August
Every step is in the Activity Diary. If you would like to plant one, sponsor a neem.
