2 kids create seed bank in free time under lockdown for green cover

Shravani and Aditya Patil’s project emerged from their desire to do their bit for society

Putting the lockdown and the summer vacations to optimal use, two children from a family in Moshi have initiated their own project of starting a seed bank.

Shravani Patil (8) and Aditya Patil (12) wanted to do their bit to help society as they have grown up watching their mother on the forefront for certain causes. They came up with the idea while spending two months of the lockdown in a village near Kolhapur where they were exposed to lush greenery and nature.

Instead of being glued to mobile phones or a television set all day long, these two took strolls across their uncle’s village, Mathgaon. Not only that, they were quick in making new friends with locals who lived nearby and have also involved them in the initiative.


In past couple of months, they have gathered close to 2,000 seeds, made 1,200 seed balls out of them and planted the rest as saplings. Most of the seeds were brought back to Pune as they wanted to make the city much greener than the villages.

Aditya said, “It is a long holiday that we have got and thought that we should do something different than what we do usually and wanted it productive. We miss our school and the studies, but thought that this could be some sort of a learning process for us as well and dedicated most our time towards it. In the process, we got to learn about new species of trees, the climate suitable for them to grow in, and the soil that requires nurturing them.”

Vaishnavi Patil, the mother of the two children, said, “As soon as the lockdown was announced, we moved to Mathgaon, where my brother stays and thought it was safer to take the children there. I just gave them the idea but it was taken ahead by them. There was no compulsion from our side for them to do this and we were surprised to see how religiously they would go around picking up these seeds, cleaning them and then making seed balls and throwing them back.”

The two children have so far gathered seeds of mango, bahava, maad, karmal, jamun and many other types of trees.

After coming back home, the project has continued and the children have kept on collecting seeds to be converted into seed balls which will be given to Naam Foundation, Paani Foundation and Pune Ploggers.

Vivek Gurav of Pune Ploggers said, “These children donated variety of seeds to our seed bank which we began some time ago during the lockdown as plugging wasn’t an option. We have grown a few saplings from these seeds in last few months. Around 50 saplings were planted by Pune Ploggers at Dighi hills.”