Maitree initiative for environment conservation and rural livelihood support aims to plant one million trees by 2024
Avashya Foundation, the CSR arm of Allcargo Logistics, hosted Mango Mania, its annual mango festival at the Allcargo Logistics office in Mumbai on June 10, 2022 to celebrate the flavour, fragrance and taste of the king of the fruits. At the day-long celebration, the farmers from Karjat and Mokhada in Maharashtra sold more than 1000 dozens of mangoes to Allcargo employees. The yearly occasion is a part of Avashya Foundation’s Maitree initiative which aims to promote environment conservation and support livelihood generation among communities from the rural areas of Maharashtra. The mangoes sold at the festival were produced by the trees planted under Maitree.
While commenting on the success of Mango Mania, Arathi Shetty, Non-Executive Director, Allcargo Logistics said, “Mango Mania is one of the many high points of Maitree. The festival is a testimony to our commitment to support rural communities by encouraging them to plant trees for conserving the environment and generating sustainable livelihoods. The encouraging response from our colleagues at Allcargo at the annual festival has further strengthened our resolve to plan a more widespread roll-out of Maitree with a goal to plant 1 million trees by 2024 and support the beneficiary communities to market the produce effectively. We continue to organise such initiatives to make people in our company aware of the importance of environment conservation and the goal of Maitree to make farmers self-reliant sustainably.”
To support and build deeper association with the target communities through Maitree, Avashya Foundation collaborated with Mumbai-headquartered Light of Life Trust and Mokhada-based Diganta Swaraj Foundation, both working towards empowering underprivileged rural communities. The inclusive engagement helped farmers become aware of the various aspects of the lifecycle of a tree, the effective use of water, prevention of attacks from bugs and animals, etc., and monitor the growth of trees. The experts also helped them form co-operative societies so that the beneficiary communities were able to market their produces at good rates. Maitree has so far supported 15,000 farmers in Maharashtra and under the project, 717975 fruit bearing saplings have been planted and subsequently nurtured in Karjat in Raigad district and Jawhar and Mokhada in Palghar district. A mixed range of 11 tree species have been planted to promote environmental biodiversity in those regions.
