with several campaigns initiatives and protests pertaining to climate crisis taking centre stage discussions around the importance of sustainability are garnering attention like never before in nagpur citizens are doing their bit to ensure festivals are celebrated in an ecofriendly manner christmas being no exception the festival has gone green too to begin with city revellers have opted for real xmas trees and ditched the artificial oneskeeping it realnagpurians have adorned their homes with the likes of cypress poinsettia juniper and araucaria since pine trees are unavailable here validating the same a local nursery caretaker sohail khan shares the demand for these plants has visibly gone up the sales shot up by almost 30 per cent compared to previous years we are happy to see a lot of youngsters picking up these plants while juniper starts from 80 a cypress plant of around six to seven feet height costs around 1800 a young professional rohan subba has been following his family tradition of decorating a real christmas tree he says our tree was bought by my grandfather when he was young weve not bought an artificial tree since then also this is the least you can do for nature decorating a real plant with your family is fun too for assistant professor neha kamble bringing home a real plant for christmas is her way to sensitise the kids we were buying artificial xmas trees until last year but this year our family members collectively decided to get a real one its the children in the family who are usually very thrilled about christmas so the intention was to make them understand the importance of nurturing a plant and the environment at large moreover i teach environmental management so i thought why not personally implement that learning this year neha explains decorations go ecofriendlyclimate crisis has been a cause of concern for a while now asserts collegian srushti sawane adding this is not the first year we are decorating a real xmas tree our family has been doing this for several years the festival is about spreading cheer so why not do that by doing our bit for the environment this year we have avoided plastic decorations as well instead we have used ice cream sticks paper boxes and baubles plus we have used paper ribbon and fans for the tree backdropchristmas themed planters gain popularity toomini juniper and cypress in christmas themed planters are also in demand this year many are opting for miniature versions of these in decorative planters so that they can be kept on their centre table or given as gifts to give them a festive feel we are decorating the planters with christmas motifs we are also getting requests for air purifying plants decked with chrismasy elements says tejal rakshamwar rahudkar the owner of a garden store