SURAT: At her age, normally dolls are a girl's best friend. But Jiya Anmi, 9, a student of class IV of Delhi Public School, finds comfort amid trees for whom she sings and dances. She feels trees talk to her. Jiya held an exhibition to sell recycled waste plastic products here on Saturday. The income generated from the sale along with donations at the exhibition will be used for buying saplings. She had hoped to generate a revenue of Rs60,000 from the exhibition .“Like us, the trees too have ears; they can listen and so we must sing to them. Like us, they too can feel pain and therefore we must not cut them. Trees should be protected by us like members of our family,” Jiya told TOI. Jiya fell in love with the trees on reading her class science lesson Amruta. Since then, she has become an avowed environmentalist.Younger of the two daughters of a textile businessman Nilesh and choreographer mother Vaishali, for Jiya protecting environment comes at top of her agenda. She has made sure how to protect the saplings which are yet to be bought and distributed.Vaishali said, “For her, trees are life. She spends maximum time with them during daytime when she is not studying or playing. She is unique.”The exhibition of recycled plastic waste material products was held at Zoom Gallery in the city. This was little Jiya’s first big attempt at saving the environment for future generations. She will ensure that the saplings to be gifted by her are only planted at such places where they would grow unhindered for the next 50 years. She has expressed her preference for planting of the saplings on the two sides of causeway in GIDC Sachin and GIDC Hajira.

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