Our History
The journey of RSFF started when Aila cyclone hit West Bengal in 2010. Thousands of trees uprooted especially in Kolkata & South 24 Parganas. The morning walkers were shocked to see the devastated condition of Rabindra Sarovar. Some social minded friends came forward to restore the trees to protect the environment. This was the beginning of RSFF. During that year about 6000 plants of different types were planted in the Rabindra Sarovar including Lions Safari Park. Morning walkers continued to see the growth of the trees and enjoyed the environment.
The journey continued by adding new members by way of organizing festival celebrations, cultural programs, annual picnic, short meeting and small social activities such as publishing lake walker’s directory etc. In the year 2019, a new team headed by Lion P L Shah PDG and Lion S S Rajput took over the management of RSFF with a big dream of distributing one lakh coconut plants in Sundarbans area with the intention to make the area a coconut based industrial hub like Kerala.The slogan given to the project is “SUNDERBAN SE SUNDER UPAWAN”.
We were fortunate to receive an invitation from Bharat Sevashram Sangha for their annual function having reputed saints and eminent social leaders at Kakdwip in February 2019. There, we presented our proposal of distributing one lakh coconut plants with the help of the big team of Bharat Sevashram Sangha. Swami Adhyatmanandji of Kakdwip Ashram & his divotee Shree Deep Bose took no time to accept our proposal then and there. Our worries of distribution & planting of coconut trees vanished immediately. The Bharat Sevashram Sangh has honest and hard working team of volunteers for the noble cause. We were happy to be the partner in progress with the Bharat Sevashram Sangh.
The Big journey of arranging funds, purchasing good quality coconut plants and despatching to Sundarbans area started. We, the team members of RSFF, visited about 17 remote villages almost every Sunday to distribute the plants to the poor villagers for their livelihood and pollution free environment. The coconut plants were procured from Coconut Development Board of India (W.B) and from their certified nurseries. The list of villages with quantity of coconut trees is given below. Names of beneficiaries with aadhaar numbers are also recorded.
Apart from distributing coconut plants, we extended our services on various occasions jointly with like-minded social organizations. To mention the few we distributed 12500 packets of biscuit and chiwda to Gangasagar pilgrimages last year (2020) and this year also Blankets, tarpaulin and dry rations were distributed to about 1000 poor families during Amphan cyclone. Ten thousand neem trees were given to KMC for planting in Kolkata area after Amphan devastation. One electric Ghantee was donated to Bharat Sevashram Sangh Kakdwip for temple aarti. Two water coolers, two toilets were installed at the Ashram school jointly with Lions Clubs International. During the school function stationery and umbrella were distributed to school children of Bharat Sevashram Sangha School at Kakdwip.
Our organization is registered with Societies Registration Act 1961, on 4th June, 2010. Most of the fund is kept in bank and accounts are audited regularly. We are authorized to receive donations under section 80G of I.T. Act and CSR Scheme. All our executive members are morning walkers and we have our formal meeting at least once a month in addition to meeting in the morning walk.
In any society it is necessary to know each other. For this purpose we brought out morning walkers directory and updated it on demand of the members. The directory published in 2014 was appreciated by one and all. On the huge demand of morning walkers to revise the information we have brought out new Directory this year along with souvenir having good articles which you all would like to preserve. This was a challenge for us and the concerned members did the difficult job to bring it out in time in spite of Covid- Pandemic.
Our service activities have been well appreciated and we received the letters of appreciation from Bharat Sevashram Sangh, Coconut Development Board of India (W.B) etc