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15 to 20 trees in front of cave no. 32 so that it makes a nice area for the many Jain tourists and others to sit, especially during the summer and rainy season.
There is a two kilometre road from cave no. 33 to caveno. 17 which is the most famous kailash temple cave. On both sides of this road we are planning to plant trees. You may be happy to know that already the institution has become involved with afforestation around cave no. 30 which has a beautiful 18 foot high Parshwanath idol and the forestry department of Maharashtra State had agreed to help them. The land belongs to the Jain community and they have dug a well there. The saplings are given by the forestry department who are also employing a watchman to guard the saplings. This is how the institution has associated itself with ecology. In a few years time this hill will look beautiful.
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Dr. L.M. Singhvi (Delhi) and Nagin Doshi (Singapore) present the Jain Declaration on Nature before going to meet H.R.H. Prince Philip on October 23, 1990
Tree-planting in Maharashtra
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A new partnership
a harayu Daftary, first woman president of the Indian
Merchants Chamber, came to Britian in October as a
delegate for the Presentation of the Jain Declaration on Nature. On her return to India, she visited a Gurukul at Ellora, Maharashtra, run under the aegis of the Samantbhadra Muniji. She writes of her visit to Guru Kul:
"There was a foundation-stone laying ceremony for the school as well as an opening of the residential rooms for the 200 Jain students who live and study there. At this function Acharya Vidyanand Muniji stopped for two to three days on his way to Bavangaja. To commemorate his visit, I requested the authorities plant 108 trees which they have agreed to do. The first 15 trees were planted on November 18 on the day of the foundation-stone laying of the school.
This Parshawanath Brahmacharyashram is two or three kilometres from the three Jain Caves of the Ellora complex of old caves. The Jain caves are beautiful and preserved except that the paintings have been destroyed. I believe they had gold colour on them and thinking that it was pure gold, people tried to burn and remove the gold and in the process have destroyed the paintings.
A few are visible to the eye with great effort. I have requested that the institution participate in the plantation of
cology, a cleaner environment, Earth Day, the green
house effect, population explosions, recycling, etc. - have not become common words of everyday vocabulary. Many of these topics and concerns dominate the agenda of many meetings and conferences; particularly in the industrialized world.
In Jainism, ecology is not a new concept. The ancient Jain spiritual aphorism 'PARASPAROPAGRAHO JIVANAM'(all life is bound together by mutual support and interdependence) is refreshingly contemporary in its premise and perspective. This aphorism defines the scope of modern ecology. It means that all aspects of nature belong
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