When the seeds were placed in their tender palms, they never thought they would find lifelong friends in them. But as they turned up on Saturday at Vrindavan Hall, the four months of hard work and caring for their saplings showed.

The Art of Living Foundation, along with the State Bank Nagar Society, organised an event on Saturday which was the second phase of their Seed 2 Sapling —Home Nursery project related to Mission Green Earth.

The organisation had distributed 6,500 seeds and fertilisers to different schools in Pune and their results sprouted out as 3,000 saplings, which were nurtured by the schoolchildren.

But the real trouble began when the organisation could not find enough area to plant the saplings and the ones already planted in areas like Panchwati hills became endangered as there are few chances of them being watered regularly. During the felicitation programme, principals, teachers and students from many schools turned up — all of whom had guided and worked on this mission. “Unless we start now, we cannot make the earth green again,” remarked Nandini Sengupta ,principal of Vidya Valley School.

Chief guest Vandana Chavan, former mayor of Pune, who is also running a mission called Alert against deforestation, gave five guidelines to children to save the earth; the deputy director of social forestry in Pune, Subhash Badve was also present.

The former mayor also pointed out that the government has taken steps against deforestation and nearly 1,000 hectares of  hilltop  and hill slopes in Pune have been saved. “We plant trees wherever and whenever possible,” she added.

The organisation launched their website, ‘Mission Green Earth, Pune’ to create awareness and get volunteers to help in their effort in spreading greenery.

But the question is who and how many will turn up to water the saplings which have been under the protection of little hands and are now ready to face the harsh world.