Dowry to save Environment? Bride's father gifts plants to guests at wedding

Zee News' Pranav Polekar reports that a bride's father - Ramesh Chouhan - gifted potted plants to guests at his daughter's wedding. He also put up posters - spreading awareness about environmental degradation - at the venue.

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New Delhi: The practice of dowry has long been looked down upon - and rightly so. But what if gifts are given willingly and with the noble intention of spreading awareness about the environment? That is exactly the idea Ramesh Chauhan had when he was planning his daughter's wedding.

A resident of Ratnagiri's Khed in Maharashtra, Ramesh gifted a potted plant to each guest at the wedding of his daughter - asking them to plant them in soil and help contribute to saving the environment. "A lot of harm is being done to the environment and (therefore), I decided to gift every guest at the wedding with a potted plant. Each of these plants have the potential to become fruit-bearing trees and it is my small effort to stop environmental degradation in whatever little way possible," he said, adding that the plants include mango, sapodilla (chikoo), jackfruit and cashew.

Apart from gifting the plants, Ramesh also put up posters at the wedding venue which urged people to act against environmental degradation.

State environment minister Ramdas Kadam, who attended the wedding, was visibly impressed with the initiative and said he hoped more such events were organised. "I feel proud to have come to this wedding. Perhaps this is the first wedding ever in whole of Maharashtra where the massage of planting trees has been spread," he said.