Telangana: Japanese technique ‘shinrin-yoku’ to be organised in Devunoor forest

Hanamkonda: In a first of its kind programmes, the Jana Vignana Vedika (JVV), Hanamkonda district unit, will organise the forest bathing programme in the Devunoor forest area about 25 km away from here on May 22 on the occasion of the International Day for Biological Diversity.

JVV, Hanamkonda district, General Secretary Parikinpandla Venu told Telangana Today that they were going to conduct this rather unfamiliar programme for the benefit of nature and wildlife lovers.

“Forest bathing concept was developed in Japan.  It emerged in Japan in the 1980s as a physiological and psychological exercise called shinrin-yoku (“forest bathing” or “taking in the forest atmosphere”).

The purpose was twofold: to offer an eco-antidote to tech-boom burnout and to inspire residents to reconnect with and protect the country’s forests,” he said. “There is a need to popularise  this form of ecotherapy as there are physiological benefits from it,” he said.

Venu also said that they had chosen the Devunoor forest area (Inuparathi gattu (gutta)  as the place for the forest bathing since it is the only urban lung space for the Hanamkonda district that has only one percent of forest cover.”

Though there is a need to protect this forest area from the illegal encroachers and mining, efforts by the district administration are less, according to environmentalist Potlapally Veerabhadra Rao. District Collector Rajiv Gandhi Hanumanthu and forest officials announced that they were taking steps to declare the Devunoor forest area as the Reserve Forest (RF); it was not declared even after a year or so, said JVV representatives.

The JVV members have appealed to the people to participate in the forest bathing programme and also highlight the need to protect the Devanoor forest area.