Forests of Life Newsletter is a monthly limited edition newsletter curated by Azim Premji University, offering glimpses of our upcoming mega festival, Forests of Life, which will be held at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru from 2 to 14 November 2023, and Azim Premji University, Bhopal in 2024.

In 2022, we launched the first in the nature awareness series, Rivers of Life, depicting the splendour of rivers across India through photographs taken by interns over a three-month period. During the festival, we had 10,000 school and college students from different corners of Karnataka who visited to explore different sections of the photo exhibition as well as interact with activists, researchers, folk artists, academics, and storytellers engaging young students in creating river stories.

Building on this success, this year, we launched Forests of Life, which is a celebration and journey through India’s forests. Following a countrywide call, we selected a cohort of interns who have collectively travelled through more than 110 diverse forests across the length and breadth of India. Each story they documented reveals different shades of the forest such as the forest-dependent livelihoods, the challenges of human-animal conflicts, and the deep association of indigenous communities with nature, and explores how forest resources can positively contribute to community wellbeing. 

To ensure that this engagement goes beyond a 12-day festival, we initiated the Forests of Life Newsletter Series on 5 June 2023, which is celebrated as World Environment Day, to increase collective awareness and commitment to Save our Forests for a sustainable future. Each subsequent edition has been unveiled on significant forest-related dates throughout the year, celebrating mangrove ecosystems, indigenous peoples, forest martyrs, and currently, World Animal Day. 

This newsletter transcends age groups, covering diverse aspects of forests from ecology and biodiversity to climate change impacts. It’s a repository of informative articles, videos, engaging puzzles, quizzes, and enchanting jungle stories. Artistic renditions from students across the country are featured in the Jungle Artwork Corner providing a visual narrative of forests based on monthly themes. 

As the Forests of Life festival approaches, the next edition will capture the essence of the festival and will include schedules, glimpses of the festivities, intern stories, forest art installations, memoirs, and performances. Stay tuned for the grand finale of this newsletter series, which we see as a tribute to the forests that sustain life on our precious planet.