Aug 28 will see Geetika Ganju interact well th Dr Amit Kaur Puri who will make some healthy, delicious sweets dedicated to the festival Rakhi where sisters in India ties the bond of love & protection on their brother’s wrists. Instead of buying sweets from shops, she advises people to make them at home & enjoy !
Dr. Amit Kaur Puri is the founder President of AKP Healing India. She is working for triple E’s- Environment, Education and Empowerment. Her mission is to plant one crore trees to protect the environment and all the amazing creatures that share our mother Earth. Her contributions to make a greener and healthier world are highly appreciated. She is a much grounded person, the world has witness her humbleness. She herself work with her hands with knees on the ground, alongside to plant saplings making the Earth greener. She has been spotted going to remote areas and working hard to empower rural women. The rural women both accepted and appreciated that Dr. Amit works with them to improve their lives and their environment. For her true literacy lies in not taking people away from land, but instill in them, even more, respect for it, because literate people are in a position to analyze what has been lost. The future of the planet concerns her, we should do what we can to protect it. She is not only a literate person, but a truly educated woman…
She got inspired by her grandfather Dr. Amar Singh Mehrotra, by seeing him planting medicinal plants, veggies seeds like tomato, capsicum, brinjal etc. in his kitchen garden himself. Though he was an eminent doctor, but he was very passionate for his medicinal and kitchen garden. From her childhood experiences and observations of nature, Amit secured special place for environment. As she was growing up she witnessed forests being cleared and replaced by commercial plantations which destroyed local biodiversity and the capacity of forests to conserve water. She was an exceptional student, opted biology and chemistry with the aim to be a scientist. She belonged to a highly educated family, her father Mr. JBS Thapar being Geologist and her mother Mrs. Kulwant Kaur Thapar were with a broad thinking. She got married to Dr. Rajdeep Singh Puri, a successful businessman from Nagpur before she reached her goals. She convinced her husband and in-laws for her further studies and experience it is not easy for girls to pursue their dreams once they are married. Life was very difficult then, meeting all the household needs, concentrating on studies. She still remembers that on 17th May 2000, she finished off with M.Sc. first year exam and delivered a baby boy on 19th May 2000. She topped in the M.Sc. exam and completed her Ph.D. on the topic “Nutritional aspect of unconventional foods consumed by Gond and Korku tribes of Vidarbha region”. She chose this topic to know the answer of suicide cases reported by farmers of Vidarbha region and to combat the problem of malnutrition among tribal children. While working in forest with tribal, she boldly faced many problems and ultimately came up with flying colours. She soon understood that when the environment is destroyed, plundered, or mismanaged; it undermines our quality of life and that of our future generations.
Tree planting became a natural choice to address some of the initial basic needs for her as a botanist. Also, tree planting is simple, attainable, and guarantees quick, successful results within a reasonable amount of time. These are important to sustain interest and commitment. She was appointed as a consultant by Govt. of Maharashtra in their drive to plant one crore trees that provide fuel, food, shelter, and income to support children and education and household needs. The activity also creates employment and improves soils and watersheds. Through this women gained some degree of power over their lives, especially their socioeconomic position and relevance in the family. Initially the work was difficult as Indian women were made to believe that, because they are poor, they lack not only capital but also knowledge and skills to address their difficulties. Instead, they are conditioned to believe that the solutions to their problems must come from outside, further women did not at that time realize that meeting their needs depended on their environment being healthy as well as well managed. They were also unaware that a degraded environment leads to a scramble for scarce resources and may culminate in poverty and even conflict. They do not know the injustice of international economic arrangements. In order to help the community understand these links, she has developed a civic education program in which people will recognize their problems, causes and solutions.
They then make connections between their actions and the problems they witness in the environment and in society. She is appointed as CSR for Apeejay Stya University, All ladies League Chairperson for Environmentalist and Head of Women cell for Global Literary Festival Noida.
The famous environmentalist Dr. Amit Kaur Puri tirelessly researched on indigenous botanical knowledge and to preserve them, she has written many research articles. She has given demonstrations of pit cooking and led guided forest walks and field trips. For her conserving this traditional knowledge has become a deeply personal act of reconciliation. She has spent her career trying to reverse that process, gathering essential knowledge from Vaidus who are now gone, and passing it on to their descendants. Her journey from science student to ethnobotanist, environmentalist, green activist, feminist, writer and poetess was not a cakewalk. She has authored many research papers of international repute. All published in various leading scientific and technical international journals. She authored a book “Women the Achievers” in 2016. She had penned down poems which are unpublished and coming up with her book “Innovators-The Achievers”. Her genes of writing is seen in her daughter Jasmit who wrote ebook “Mumbai dabbawala” and in the process of writing book “Kanya-The Woman”.
Her trust AKP Healing India is now a national movement to plant trees and conserve them. She for the first time had introduced the concept of seed bombs in India. She organizes workshops where the common people of India meet, here she shares the various techniques to make these seed bombs. Workshop is attended by people from all walks of life like politicians, entrepreneurs, singers, housewives and youngsters. Nature enthusiasts gathers in huge number which depicts India wants pollution free environment. Dr. Puri says, “While usual gardening enthusiasts show interest in seed bombing, it is the kids who take to the activity in a big way, the concept is based on guerrilla gardening and it is a fun way for people to be involved in making the city green. It’s easy to do, and a great and tactile way for the kids to be involved”. Seeds carry new life in the form of new plant inside them. Dr. Puri has come up with the solution to avoid water pollution caused after Ganpati and Durga visarjan. AKP Healing India has launched Green Ganesha Tree Ganesha. Similarly Green Durga Tree Durga for Navratri and green Laxmi-Ganesha for Diwali.
She also realized it is women who face huge problem by environment imbalance as for example if there is water scarcity due to continuous felling of trees, it is women who has to walk long distances to fetch water. Her vision also is to supporting small, women-run farms which can be the key to creating environmentally sustainable food sources that also provide economic growth. Amit realized that we make educational policies but these policies are not implemented in villages and remote areas. She had exclusively surveyed Mewat-crime prone against women, sensitive area in Haryana. She has made documentary film on entitled ”Region Without Reason-Mewat” depicting Impact of Educational policies on social, economic and health status of women of Haryana. She believes that her energetic, positive approach to life high standards of excellence, long-standing passion for and dedication to agricultural science, proven ability to mentor people at all levels, strategic planning, facilitation, and budget and program expertise has positioned her well. She understands how science is planned, accomplished, impeded, reported, developed and transferred into practical technologies, including commercialization where appropriate. She enjoys working with people and creating a friendly, ethical, open and collaborative work environment. She is successful in identifying and solving managerial problems from broad issues in a programmatic manner and takes tremendous satisfaction in guiding, supporting, and developing the success of others.
Dr. Amit Kaur Puri has received many National and International awards including best ethnobotanist award from the University of California, United States of America.
They tried to grave me.
They sowed me instead,
They didn’t know I was a seed.
She ishonoured by
Best female scientist award from SOE, USA
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