Dipika Sharma has just returned from Patgot, Uttarakhand, where she led a group of 10 people through the enchanting Kilbury forest. They walked under trees that seemed to touch the sky, listened to birds and gurgling streams. After a two-night retreat, they are back in their city homes, feeling rejuvenated.
They are a group of forest bathers and Dipika was their guide.
Dipika Sharma during one of her forest bathing walks
The ancient Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku (forest bath) is about mindful walking in the woods. Advocates of shinrin-yoku say it teaches you how to create little pockets of stillness within. “Don’t confuse it with a trek or a jog. Forest bathing is just a slow, meditative stroll under the trees, where you absorb the sounds, smells and sights of the forest,” Dipika explains.
Based in Noida, Dipika has been conducting forest bathing walks in Delhi since September 2019 and has held two retreats in the Himalayas through her website, Forest Therapy-India. With the pandemic and lockdowns, more people are awakening to the idea of going back to Nature. “People are now aware of how Nature can be the best stress-buster,” she adds.
In search of better health
After months of endless scrolling, swiping and clicking on devices, some time amid trees is refreshing, both physiologically and psychologically, says Nitin Das, a Delhi-based filmmaker who started forest bathing in 2016. He formed a collective in the same year, Healing Forests, which creates awareness on the restorative power of Nature.
What Nitin started as a personal blog now has grown across social media platforms. The Facebook page of Healing Forests has over 1,50,000 followers and the blog has over 10,000 readers. A WhatsApp group has over 100 members from different parts of the country, who initiate people to forest bathing. “Humans are evolutionarily linked to Nature. So, when we go back to it, our brain releases certain hormones that lower stress levels,” Nitin says.
Kala Ramesh amid a forest bathing session at Pune University
However, for practising shinrin-yoku , one does not necessarily need a forest, says Kala Ramesh, a haiku poet, who has been leading forest bathing walks and earth grounding (walking barefoot to promote physical connection with the earth) for over three years in Pune. “Just look for parks and urban forests within your city. Even walking on a tree-lined road could make a difference,” she says.
Kala’s forest bathing walks are usually conducted on the 400-acre-sprawling campus of the Pune University. She even got two ‘forest bathing’ boards installed with permission from the authorities. The walks are in Alice Garden, a heritage site packed with 70-year-old trees, planted by the British.
‘Forest Bathing’ board installed at Pune University
Kala encourages participants to touch the trees and hug them to build a sense of closeness. “It is good for the body too. Trees give out phytoncides — anti-microbial organic compounds that are believed to help lower blood pressure and even enhance the body’s autoimmune responses,” she says.
Forest bathing typically lasts for about two hours and follows no fixed routine. Guides let participants experience the forest in their own ways. Some of them weave in meditation, journalling and photography.
In her forest bathing and earth grounding sessions, Kala talks about the importance of the five elements — ether (akash), wind (vayu), fire (agni), water (jalam) and earth (prithvi), known as the panchabhootas . She invites painters, musicians and dancers to express their experiences through their art form, and at times, she even introduces haiku to the group. Seeing the pulse of the participants, she changes her format. “The most important thing is to engage the people and have them believe in the authenticity of the practice,” Kala says.
Away from the noise
Nitin leads his forest bathing walks at Sanjay Van in Delhi and the Gurgaon Biodiversity Park.
Kala, who is originally from Chennai, says Natesan Park in the city would be a great location for shinrin-yoku . “Even Kalakshetra Foundation would be an ideal location. I plan to explore these options once the COVID-19 situation improves,” she says.
- For those such as poet TM Shihab, who left his home in Fort Kochi 25 years ago to live in the forest, the city is just a noisy abode of discontent. He lived in a tree house in the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary for three years.
- Now, having built a house in Kanthallur, a forest area near the Anaimudi National Park, Shihab says he has never felt the need to go back to the city. “The lure of the forest is irresistible. It is mysterious, there is something new to discover every day,” he says. “There is no other way to live, than in a forest.”
Bengaluru-based Vaishnavi Viswanathan says the city has a few urban forests which are ideal for forest bathing walks. “Cubbon Park and Lal Bagh aside, we have the Arekere forest, GKVK Research Centre and the Hebbal Lake area, which are perfect for city-dwellers to connect with Nature,” she says. An entrepreneur based in Bengaluru, Vaishnavi has been leading forest bathing walks for corporates and the public for three years.
She launched a platform, Nature Connections, a network of people who spread the joy of reconnecting with Nature, in 2017. Vaishnavi has conducted similar walks in Mumbai and Chennai as well. “Most of the participants come back to me saying they could see the park in their city in a new light,” she adds.
“This has to grow into a movement, so that gradually, it becomes a way of life. This way, our urban forests would also be conserved,” Vaishnavi says.
Forest bathers in Noida
While the benefits of forest bathing are being widely studied in Scandinavian countries, Japan and South Korea, it is still nascent in India, says Dr Diptarup Chowdhury, faculty of Clinical Psychology at LGBRIMH, in Tezpur, Assam, one of the oldest mental health institutions in India.
Nature creates a space for self-healing, he says. “In the midst of Nature, in the absence of noise, you listen to the chatter of your mind and realise how much of it really matters,” Diptarup adds. He has introduced forest bathing at the Youth Wellness Hub, a centre for promoting mental health among the youth, at LGBRIMH.
These walks, he believes, help young people get re-accustomed to Nature and learn to appreciate it. “Ours is an 80-acre campus with a wealth of trees. We can even catch a glimpse of the Himalayas … the Brahmaputra flows next to our facility. By getting closer to Nature, one can build one’s own repertoire of wellness,” he says.
