Suruchi Athalye

Suruchi Athalye teaches gardening at Prakriya Green Wisdom School. Her journey from a healthcare professional to a gardening teacher started off with a year-long fellowship program at Bhoomi in the area of Sustainability. Having experienced the abundance of nature in her childhood and the lack of it later in highly urbanised places she realised the significance of nature in daily lives. She believes that as adults, we owe it to the children to provide them with natural spaces so that they can be part of the natural world. Suruchi does this by implementing gardening in school curriculum. She uses gardening sessions to bring ecological concepts to the classroom, connecting children with food, soil and waste. She combined outdoor observations and hands on work with the textbook learning to make it more holistic and joyful.

In her free time, Suruchi enjoys working in her terrace garden. She also takes active part in initiating sustainable practices in her own community. 

Suruchi's talk will showcase what Prakriya children ( grade 4 to grade 8 ) do in their gardening classes.