The first time Ittisha Sarah — a 25-year-old resident of Guwahati — used a koor (a heavy-duty spade), she did it effortlessly. She was with a group of 20, in a hill in Sonapur, about 15 km from Guwahati, planting saplings. “Digging and planting in silence — that was the mandate,” she says. Now when she looks back, she realises that it was probably “a sense of zeal” — instilled by “just being in nature”— that made the process of wearing gum boots, using a koor, digging a pit and planting saplings so “effortless.” “Of course, it is hard work, but somehow when you are there you don’t feel it is,” she says.