With an aim to save birds in the national capital, a resident of Delhi’s Ashok Vihar area has built more than 2.5 lakh nests in his life, is called the “Nest Man” in the city.
Rakesh Khatri, also known as the Nest Man, also teaches people to create nests and taught more than lakhs of students till now. He has also received many awards for building these shelters for birds.
Speaking to ANI, Khatri said, “I was very fond of playing with birds since childhood and started building nests for them since then. Till now, I have built more than 2.5 lakh nests in my life.”
“I have taught lakhs of students how to make nests. In the beginning, people used to make fun of me and used to say how will the birds enter the nest built by them. However, when the bird started entering their nests, they started setting up nests in their own homes,” he said.
He also informed that he also held many webinars during the COVID-19 pandemic and taught people to make nests with jute, plastic, grass, wood, etc.
According to Khatri, he has received a total of five awards for this initiative so far which includes Limca book of record For maximums number of handmade nests and workshop, 2019 and the International Green Apple Award in the house of commons London for best practice on sparrow conservation and others.
He has also received Limca book of record for theatre on climate change with 112000 students in 12 languages, Earth day star declared by 190 countries association Washington DC and on Rakesh Special chapter in 4th standard English book of ICSC board this year, and National Award for best performance with children through innovative and traditional methods, World Book of records for 125000 nests of jute and tetra pack.