Bal Bhavan to play host to grand closure of Neralu on February 14th

by February 11, 2015 Environment
The grand finale of Neralu will see several art and cultural performances in addition to walks and workshops. Also participate in the Hug-A-Tree campaign on the occasion of Valentine's Day.

Hundreds of citizens came together on the weekend of February 7th and 8th to celebrate the garden city’s  glorious natural heritage at many locations, including NGMA, KR Rao park and Dodamavalli Katte. Citizens of all ages participated enthusiastically in tree walks, listened to talks by naturalists and artists, and appreciated the movies, performances and street plays. Citizens came together to  celebrate the garden city’s  glorious natural heritage.

On  Saturday February 14th, the festivities will move to Bal Bhavan, Cubbon Park, with a host of art activities and cultural performances that bring a grand closure to the NERALU tree.

List of activities planned

  • Moved by Trees – Performance workshop by Veena Basavarajaiah (10 am – 1 pm)
  • Puttaniya Kathe – Storytelling by Bangalore Storytelling Society (11 am onwards)
  • Booo said the Booruga  – Storytelling by Mala Kumar (12 pm onwards)
  • ಬೆಂದಳೂರು – ವೃಕ್ಷೋ ರಕ್ಷತಿ ರಕ್ಷಿತಃ. – Streetplay by Kaleido Group
  • Mega Hug-A-Tree
  • Bhoomi Geethe – Performance by MD Pallavi & Team
  • Upside Down Tree – Performance by Shabnam Virmani & Vipul Rikhi of  The Kabir Project
  • Art Installations
  • Games
  • Live art demonstration
  • Photography
  • Self-guided tree walks
  • Audio walks​​

Say it with love this Valentine’s Day

A young tree lover at Neralu. Pic credit:Suchi Govindarajan

A Mega Hug-a-tree campaign has been planned keeping Valentine’s Day in mind. At the grand finale at Bal Bhavan, Neralu intends to connect citizens of Bengaluru with their natural heritage through this gesture.  .

Neralu hopes to get  lot of visibility on social media on Valentines day with a  ‘love trees’ message. People can click an image and email it to hugatree@neralu.in with the subject line #hugatree. The image will then instantly appear on the Neralu site: www.neralu.in/hugatree.

Related Articles

Bengalureans express their love for trees at the Neralu Tree Festival
Painting the town red, green, yellow and every other colour
Shade the city green at the Neralu Tree Festival

Sections:

About Poornima Kannan

Poornima is an avid blogger with keen interest in urban wildlife.She is also a freelance communication consultant with special interest in organisations that work towards a social cause.
Read more by Poornima Kannan

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Similar Story

The wild in the city: What citizen scientists tell us about Bengaluru’s biodiversity

by March 12, 2026 Environment
Spatial and temporal biodiversity patterns, as observed by citizen scientists in the city during 2016-2025, were studied at a datajam in December 2025.

Imagine you’re out on a morning walk, phone in hand, when you spot a butterfly you’ve never seen before. You snap a photo, log it into a citizen science app, and voila! You’ve just contributed to crucial biodiversity monitoring. This isn’t just a hobby; it’s part of a global movement where ordinary people collect, record, and sometimes analyse data about plants, animals, and ecosystems. Citizen science stretches the reach of ecological research. Every observation adds to unique longitudinal datasets that reveal phenology — periodic events in the life cycle of a species — along with species distribution shifts and population…

Continue reading

Similar Story

Air quality management is a governance problem, not just an environmental one

by and March 2, 2026 Environment
Despite massive funding, Indian cities face weak governance, poor data, and limited capacity, as air pollution continues to worsen.

Indian cities are struggling to breathe. Air pollution is a year-round governance challenge. In 2024, 35 of the 50 most polluted cities globally were in India, with PM2.5 concentrations above 66.4 μg/m3. This is at least 13 times the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines and at least 1.6 times the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) in India. Citizens continue to bear the brunt of worsening air quality, and urban local governments (ULGs) are at the forefront of the problem, being primarily accountable for their citizens' first mile. While they do have a role to play in addressing this threat,…

Continue reading