Bhavans Nature & Adventure Centre is a center for environmental learning and self-growth in the heart of the Mumbai urban jungle.
BNAC stands out as a patch of beautiful greenery, and a water body spread over three acres of land, housing and nurturing many forms of flora and fauna. What stood as a dumping area for non-biodegradable waste is now a mini sanctuary for over 300 species of plants, trees, insects, birds, and animals.
Bhavan’s Nature And Adventure Centre (BNAC), a trust organized by the government of India as a center of national eminence, is part of Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, a 75-year-old non-profit educational trust. It has been an official partner of the UN Decade on Biodiversity 2011-2020 since its onset in 2011.
Himanshu Prem Joshi is the Administrator & Head of BNAC and has been actively involved in biodiversity and environmental protection for decades. He played a vital role in transforming garbage infested area into Bhavan’s Nature and Adventure Centre (BNAC) in 2012
AIM:
BNAC aims to reach out to the masses through its activities and programs to build a beautiful India.
They aim to encourage people, especially young minds, to participate in adventure activities and to rescue, care and rehabilitate injured and endangered animals.
MISSION:
BNAC’S mission is to create a mentality shift towards greater awareness of nature, animals, the environment, and biodiversity, as greater awareness and understanding ultimately pave the way to love and the desire to protect and maintain.
JOURNEY:
The place we know today as a Green Sanctuary that is BNAC was not the same as it is today.
Until 2009, the two acres of land that form the BNAC premises on the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan college campus lay idle and were used mainly as a landfill site. It was filled with lots of non-biodegradable waste like rubber, plastic, glass, etc.
At this time, to transform the unused, wasted space into a unique nature park for children and adults, Mr. Himanshu prem Joshi approached the authorities.
With the communities’ support, the cleaning work was initiated in 2011. After the first 8 months of work, they started plantations, and nature began to gain back the ground.
The privacy of the bushes and trees attracted several drug users to spend their days there. Now they had to find innovative ways to avoid any problems from them, so they came up with the idea of bringing in dogs for protection, and that is how Joy, their first guard who’s a Labrador dog, was inducted and recruited and after that, others followed Ninja, Nubra, ZingZing, Ranger.
BNAC was officially inaugurated in January 2012! Two and a half years of hard work completely reshaped the area into a green and inviting environment.
There are currently more than 225 volunteers supporting BNAC in its many activities in Andheri West. Animal Care, Nature Education, Environment Awareness, and other activities are conducted here. Over 1,20,000 school college students and visitors have already benefited.
College students can enroll as Volunteers to participate and learn from the routine. Schools can arrange Field trips here.
Today, BNAC provides a haven to hundreds of species of plants, trees, butterflies, birds, animals, etc.
They also have an Animal Rescue & Care Centre where they rescue, treat, and release over 600 birds and other animals.
CONCLUSION:
Amid the bustling city life, chaos and tension, if you need a break and a need to connect to yourself. This is where you need to be. Peace, calm, and love, heaven on earth in the center of the concrete jungle is this beautiful paradise.