The interviews and reporting for this story had been performed in June 2025.

“Rising up, my father would take me to the zoo. And thoughts you, I didn’t go for the tigers or cheetahs. I went to see a chicken,  a parrot named Hiraman. He may speak. He’d get excited after we got here close to, hopping, squawking, making every kind of noises. Then someday, we went and he wasn’t there. The zookeeper instructed us he had died. I finished going after that. Years later, whereas birdwatching in Jaipur’s Dol Ka Badh forest, I noticed an Alexandrine Parakeet. Are you aware what it’s known as in Hindi? Hiraman.”

That reminiscence has by no means left Shaurya Goyal, a mechatronics engineer by coaching, who as soon as constructed robots for a dwelling. Immediately, whilst he continues to work with machines and programs, it is the pure world that stirs him most.

 

Years later, Shaurya would spot one other Hiraman, not in a cage, however within the wild, in a stretch of inexperienced on the metropolis’s edge. The Alexandrine Parakeet, lengthy lacking from a lot of Jaipur, was nonetheless alive and singing within the ‘Dol Ka Badh’ forest.

A childhood love for nature was now rooted in fierce objective. Shaurya had discovered his forest.

From circuits to canopies

Shaurya’s journey isn’t the one you’d anticipate. A tech innovator by training and occupation, he has spent years immersed on the earth of machines and automation — an area he continues to work in passionately. However aspect by aspect with that fascination was one thing softer: an unshakeable reverence for the pure world.

“I’ve all the time been drawn to nature, to issues that develop, decay, heal. Forests work like programs too. They’re advanced, fantastically coded.”

 

So when information broke that Dol Ka Badh, one in every of Jaipur’s final remaining inexperienced lungs, was being dug as much as make approach for brand new infrastructure, Shaurya couldn’t keep away. What started as heartbreak rapidly grew to become resistance.

One evening, round 1:30 am, he acquired a name. A large peepal tree, sacred to the ecosystem and estimated to be a number of hundred years previous, was being lower.

“That tree had 9 stems. Every one is as thick as a bicycle is lengthy. If you happen to positioned a Fortuner automotive round them, it will barely match. By the point we reached, that they had solely managed to take away one root and even that root was as thick because the trunk of most timber. It weighed almost 20 kilos.”

 

They stopped the slicing that evening. However it was just one incident in a a lot bigger sample of encroachment and quiet destruction.

“If you happen to have a look at it day by day, you don’t discover. However over 15–20 years, you see the harm — like a person slowly balding. Dol Ka Badh is balding due to infrastructure improvement.”

The forest that also holds breath

Most individuals, once they consider a forest, think about timber. However Dol Ka Badh holds a far deeper, richer world — one nonetheless respiratory, barely, beneath stress.

Komal Srivastava, a birder and wildlife photographer, has spent years strolling its paths. Her work has documented over 80 species of birds right here. “Each go to brings one thing new. Typically it’s a species that shouldn’t even be right here, however by some means, it has made its residence.”

 

Among the many most treasured is the Alexandrine Parakeet, now near-threatened throughout India. “These birds are trapped and offered as a result of they mimic human voices. That’s why you don’t see them in cities anymore,” she says. “However right here, they’ve survived.”

Cuckoos fly in from southern India every summer season to breed. Bee-eaters dig tiny burrows within the soil. Golden Orioles flash between the timber. Even the uncommon Rose Finch has been noticed right here.

What lies beneath: Bugs and soil

Whereas the branches carry color and track, Dol Ka Badh’s engine runs beneath the floor. In 2025, a citizen-led insect survey revealed an astonishing world: beetles, grasshoppers, praying mantises, jewel bugs, butterflies, ants, and spiders — all quietly doing the work of protecting the forest alive.

“Every one has a task — breaking down waste, pollinating flowers, feeding birds. With out them, the entire stability shifts,” says environmentalist Devendra Bhardwaj.

 

The bottom right here feels delicate. Fallen leaves decompose into wealthy, fertile soil. Animal droppings from nilgai, peacocks and squirrels fertilise the earth naturally. There aren’t any pesticides, no human interventions.

“If you stroll via Dol Ka Badh, you’re strolling over years of life layered beneath your ft,” he provides. 

How the forest retains Jaipur alive

Jaipur summers are harsh. Temperatures typically cross 45°C, and town’s concrete holds onto the warmth. However close to Dol Ka Badh, all the things shifts. The air is cooler. The solar feels softer.

Forests like these decrease temperatures by as much as three to 4 levels. Their roots maintain soil in place, stopping erosion. When it rains, the forest absorbs the water and slowly recharges town’s aquifers. Its timber seize carbon and launch oxygen.

“Within the metropolis, rain disappears into drains. Right here, the forest retains it. Even when individuals don’t see it, they profit from it.”

In Jaipur, the place lower than eight p.c of the land is forested, Dol Ka Badh issues excess of its acreage.

When individuals realised what was at stake

For a very long time, Dol Ka Badh was merely a part of the background. It had all the time been there. Folks walked by it, some walked via it. And since it had by no means requested something from anybody, few thought a lot about its future. That modified when information of development plans reached the individuals dwelling close by.

Shaurya remembers the second clearly. “None of us began out considering we had been environmentalists or activists. All of us have our jobs, our households, our routines. However when you hear that components of the forest may be cleared, you immediately really feel how simply one thing you’ve all the time taken without any consideration can vanish.”

 

The primary intuition was easy: discover out what was actually there. If nobody else had made a report of the forest’s timber, birds, or bugs, the individuals who cared most about it determined they’d do it themselves.

They didn’t have official funding or groups of scientists. What that they had had been neighbours, mates, school college students, academics, photographers, and anybody keen to stroll beneath the solar for hours. Volunteers cut up into small teams, every taking a piece of the forest. They marked each tree they discovered with chalk, took images, and used cell apps to report the precise location of every one.

Shaurya describes the routine. “One individual would deal with the tagging and GPS, the opposite would write down the species and rely. We double-checked all the things to verify we didn’t miss or repeat any timber. It was sluggish work, nevertheless it mattered.”

Over 15 and 16 Could 2025, groups documented 446 timber in simply the sections most straight beneath menace. The complete forest, in fact, holds way more. Among the many timber counted had been Indian Elms, Babool, Neem, Khejri, Rohida, and others — many who take a long time to succeed in the heights they stand at now. 

“A few of these timber are simply 40-50 years previous,” Shaurya says. “They usually aren’t simply timber. They’re properties. Birds nest right here, bugs dwell within the bark, and animals relaxation within the shade. You narrow one, and also you don’t simply lose wooden. You lose all the things that is determined by it.”

However the work didn’t cease with timber. The workforce labored alongside birdwatchers and researchers to construct full lists of birds, bugs, and plants — importing them onto open databases like iNaturalist in order that the data couldn’t simply be disputed or ignored. Each photograph, each location pin, each guidelines grew to become a part of the forest’s dwelling proof.

Devendra explains why it was obligatory. “After getting correct documentation, it’s not a matter of perception or debate. It’s proper there. The info speaks for itself.”

The kids who carry the forest ahead

On weekends, when individuals collect at Dol Ka Badh for nature walks or conferences, it’s typically the youngest ones who arrive first, tugging at their mother and father’ palms. Some come carrying their sketchbooks, others deliver vibrant banners they’ve made at residence, stuffed with drawings of birds, timber, and slogans in shaky handwriting.

Komal smiles when she talks about them. “You may see it of their faces. They are not right here as a result of somebody made them come. They wish to be right here. They wish to know the names of the birds, they wish to guess which feather belongs to which species. It is curiosity you possibly can’t pressure in a classroom.”

 

One little boy, round seven years previous, has develop into one thing of a well-known face on the gatherings. “Every time, he reveals up with a brand new poster he has made himself. As soon as, he even arrived carrying a full peacock costume, his chest hyped up proudly as he marched alongside the adults,” Shaurya laughs as he remembers. 

The sight of him, holding his do-it-yourself placard within the entrance basket of his tiny cycle, has develop into an emblem of the motion’s coronary heart. “The way in which he prepares for every occasion — you’d assume he was main the complete rally. His pleasure is contagious.”

However it’s not simply the kids. The mother and father, too, have needed to make selections. Bringing youngsters out into the open, away from screens, will not be all the time straightforward. Mitali Desai, one of many earliest residents to step in for Dol Ka Badh, sees this as one of many quiet victories.

“Rather a lot is determined by us, the mother and father,” Mitali says. “If we don’t deliver them right here, they could by no means know what this looks like. As soon as they see it, as soon as they spend time beneath these timber, they begin asking questions at residence. And shortly, they begin educating us how a lot it issues.”

 

Mitali’s personal daughter grew up with the forest only a brief stroll from their residence. Despite the fact that she now research overseas, the updates proceed. “She nonetheless calls me to ask, ‘Is the forest protected? Are individuals nonetheless coming? Are the birds nonetheless there?’ That attachment has stayed along with her, and it’ll all the time keep.”

For these youngsters, Dol Ka Badh will not be some faraway place mentioned in textbooks or information experiences. It is a part of their rising up. An actual, dwelling a part of their on a regular basis world. And maybe that’s what makes this forest tougher to lose — not only for them, however for everybody watching them be taught to care.

 

What retains them standing right here, day after day

At first, the gatherings had been small. A handful of individuals would present up within the mornings, sitting beneath the timber, watching the employees arrive with their machines. Some days, it felt like they had been making an attempt to carry again one thing too large with nothing however their very own presence.

Mitali has seen lots of these mornings. “Some days it was just some of us. You begin to marvel in case you’re being silly. However then you definitely remind your self — if we don’t come, who will?”

Because the weeks went on, extra individuals arrived. Associates introduced mates. Strangers messaged on-line asking how they may assist. On weekends, school college students rode in on cycles. Households got here with do-it-yourself banners. Over time, what began as a number of involved residents changed into one thing bigger — a group sure by the straightforward choice to not flip away.

 

Even now, the sample continues. On weekdays, twenty or thirty individuals quietly maintain house. On weekends, the numbers swell. At one current occasion, almost a thousand individuals shaped a human chain across the space, holding indicators, studying poetry, some merely standing in silence. The message was all the time the identical: this forest issues.

Shaurya says, “The numbers don’t matter as a lot as the truth that individuals maintain exhibiting up. Some individuals drive for hours from different cities simply to be right here. You realise it’s not about comfort. It’s about one thing a lot deeper.”

 

There’s no large organisation behind it. No formal management. Folks come as a result of they really feel the pull. Lots of them have full-time jobs, youngsters, mother and father to take care of, deadlines to fulfill. But they carve out this time — within the mornings earlier than work, within the evenings after dinner, on weekends once they could possibly be wherever else.

“You see workplace staff, retired academics, college youngsters, younger {couples}, all standing collectively,” says Mitali. “And each time you see new faces, you’re feeling a bit of extra hope.”

Why this forest issues far past its borders

At first look, it would seem to be Dol Ka Badh is simply Jaipur’s concern — one patch of timber, one small nook of a single metropolis. However the fact is way larger than that.

Throughout India, as cities develop, tales like this one repeat themselves. Residences rise the place groves as soon as stood. Roads widen. Flyovers lower via what was open areas. Within the rush to construct, inexperienced areas typically develop into the primary to shrink.

 

India’s nationwide forest coverage says that one-third of the nation needs to be beneath forest cowl. Jaipur sits far behind, at solely six to eight p.c. On this panorama, each surviving patch, regardless of how small or unnoticed, carries weight far past its measurement.

Devendra speaks softly, however his phrases stick with you. “Folks assume you possibly can lower one forest and plant timber someplace else. However you possibly can’t change a tree that’s thirty years previous with a sapling. You may’t rebuild what lives contained in the branches and roots. You may’t recreate what takes a long time to type.”

Komal nods as he speaks. “If you lower a tree right here, you don’t simply lose wooden. You lose nests, eggs, bugs, soil well being, shade, meals — a complete chain of life constructed round that one trunk. It’s all related. If one half breaks, all the things else feels it,” she provides. 

 

And whereas the loss is ecological, it’s private too. For the individuals who grew up enjoying beneath these timber, for the kids studying to call birds, for the households who stroll these trails on Sunday mornings — this isn’t simply land. It’s a part of who they’re.

What hope nonetheless grows right here

For years, Dol Ka Badh has blended into the perimeters of town. It didn’t ask for consideration. Folks handed by, by no means considering a lot about what was right here. However as soon as they stopped and regarded, they noticed how a lot life had all the time been ready. And as soon as they noticed it, they couldn’t stroll away.

That’s what retains bringing individuals again. Dad and mom deliver their youngsters. Neighbours deliver their mates. Some come to stroll, some simply to take a seat for some time. Strangers meet, and slowly, it begins to really feel like everybody’s a part of the identical effort.

Shaurya says, “We began as a result of we didn’t wish to lose this place. However being right here, you realise you’re not simply saving timber. You meet individuals who care such as you do. You’re feeling such as you’re a part of one thing.”

The forest continues to be standing. The birds are nonetheless calling. New saplings proceed to develop. And so long as individuals maintain exhibiting up — even one individual at a time — Dol Ka Badh nonetheless has a future.

As a result of generally, all it takes to save lots of one thing is to care. And when you care, you are by no means standing alone. Someplace within the branches, perhaps a Hiraman nonetheless sings.