Tree-planters of Mandeveli

Internet is a powerful medium which can be used to promote/educate . . . and, perhaps, rediff could support/sponsor for free web hosting for NGO's like Global greenways, wrote a Mandaveli, Chennai, resident in response to a Rediff.com feature by Shobha Warrier. The piece, about a tree-loving duo, Mr V Subramaniam, a retired RBI official, and Dr R Madhavan, was written in 2003. Fellow blogger Naveen Chimmanda fwded it to us the other day.

And this evening, Dr Madhavan, who took my call from Mysore while attending to patients in his Chennai clinic, said matter-of-factly he didn't have time for the Internet and rarely checked mail, though he had an ID. His Global Greenways that has planted trees in thousands over the past two decades doesn't have a website. Dr Madhavan pleads lack of time "for that sort of thing", though, I sense, it is not uncommon for folk of his generation to be unaware of the potentials of the Internet and of what the web can do to promote a cause or an idea. It is for the public-spirited techies to initiate them into the ways of the Internet, and, as Mandaveli Bala suggests, sponsor free web hosting for Global Greenways.

"We don't plant any longer; only supply saplings," said Dr Madhavan, who, with Mr Subramaniam, used to go round Chennai on a tricycle loaded with saplings, looking for vacant space to plant them. When they started this, some two decades back, they were termed by some as crackpots. Within a year of their start, the 'crackpot' duo had planted over 400 saplings in Mandaveli.

When word spread about their activity, the duo were invited by residents elsewhere in the city. And they obliged, planting it for free, on the only condition that the residents undertook to take care of the plants. "We used to get calls from northern Madras asking us to plant trees, and we would travel more than 20 kilometres to plant them," Mr Subramanian is quoted as saying . Dr Madhavan gifted saplings to all his patients.

When I asked him about funding, he said it did not cost them much to supply saplings. He has a nursery of his own. Tree-guards were sponsored by the United India Insurance Co., says the Rediff article. Dr Madhavan, who has a farm in Inchampakkam, said his nursery could supply upto 500 saplings at any given time; the doctor also kept saplings in his Mandaveli house, presumably, to give them away to his patients.

Read Shoba Warrier's Rediff Special - How green is my Chennai.

A tree thats almost gone

When sapgreen first appeared in Deccan Herald, we had a call from a person. The lady asked if we had a "Pagade tree". Now whats that ? Back then we were not specific about the type of tree. We just wanted someone to plant a tree. I said "ma'm, sorry we don't have that" Few minutes latter her daughter called to congratulate us on our venture and she asked us what exactly do we do ? Few minutes of talk and I realized they just loved trees lot more than anything. They protected every branch of a tree that surrounded there neighborhood, requesting,yelling at people not hurt the tree. The Khan's were a great tree lovers. Yet they failed to procure a single sappling of "Pagade tree". This is when we realized the importance of "the type". A little research on this tree (You fill find it here it's called MIMUSOPS ELENGI L) and we came to know there are only few trees of this left in Mysore, yes just 3-4 of them, after lot of searching around, I finally found THE TREE, in the " Chandravana Garden" of Mysore. This is a garden maintained by govt. ayurvedic hospital.

Khan's loved this tree, the fruit was a favorite for her father. It seems it was lost generations back, people haven't heard about such a fruit for long. It is now standing tall as a laboratory specimen.This is when we promised the Khan family to get it for them, now it is a part of sapgreen's goal to get these rare trees back to life. My next visit to Chandravana will be this saturday, I will try to get some pictures an procure the pagade fruit and see if one of our nurseries can grow it back for us. I will get some pictures of this gorgeous lesser known garden of Mysore. This is a place every tree lover should visit once. It is opposite to University swimming pool. It's a beautiful forest with lots of ayurvedic plants, you can try some of these and believe me you will have fun with lot of tongue twisting and sweet leaves.

If anybody is looking for a rare species of a Tree, let us know and we will do our best to procure it for you.

Gone, a life of hundred years...

Reproduced here, a poem on the death of a tree, aged 100 plus, by a 14-year-old, who chose to voice the unspoken agony of having its life cut short mercilessly by the very people whom the tree had served faithfully.

Poet Deepti Raghuram who calls herself 'freakish', runs a blog - 'Heal the world'. Isn't that a freaky title for a teenager's blog? Here, then, is her piece, as we found it - no Caps; not much punctuation.

gone a life of hundred years
cut mercilessly at its base
yet it neither showed its fears
nor the pain on its face

the cries of 'i served thee faithfully'
could not be heard
nor its sounds of pain; is it right that
death should come as nemesis for others gain?

the killers did not know
about the great life they had taken away,
nor were they bothered
when the birds from home flew far away.

betrayed by the people whom
it first had defended,
yet they were the same people
who were 'friends' as they once had pretended.

as it fell undefended
the tar ground became its first resting place.
was this the respect to pay
to a life of 100 years but still gay?
Alas, not one thought, not one asked.....

No more home delivery

Mysore's green delivery company - Sapgreen - has stopped planting saplings at people's houses because, they say, it costs more than what they charge for the service - Rs.125. Sapgreen's Ashwin, in a blog post, claims transporting saplings posed a hassle. As he put it, "for planting just 2 saplings, we had to travel 10km in one direction, then back and again 10km in the opposite direction of the city. Totally, 40km".And they have just one person doing the job; and cycling 40 km, merely to deliver two or three plants, isn't worth the effort. It doesn't result in "much value addition anyway".
I thought Sapgreen was a Mysore company, in the sense that its tree-planting service would be available to the entire city. Now that they have declared their focus would be "on companies and persons willing to sponsor planting in (designated) public space", my sense is that Sapgreen isn't thinking beyond their current sphere of operation - Gokulum and Vijayanagara.
As someone living in Devaraja Mohalla, Sapgreen's self-centric approach wouldn't hold much appeal to me. Nor would it,I guess, to someone in Vonttikoppal or Vidyaranyapuram. If I plant a sapling to celebrate a family event, I would rather see it planted close by, if not in my backyard. Ideally, we would all want to watch them grow.
Besides, neighbourhood plantings in varied localities ought to make marketing sense for Sapgreen;and even get them the much-needed word-of-mouth publicity mileage. Wouldn't marketing/publicity of Sapgreen's services cost money? Wish Anil-Ashwin do a rethink on their core plan. I wish I could pick up the phone and voice my misgivings, as I used to do when Sapgreen was still in its formative days and its promoters were in regular touch with some of us in FORT-Mysore.

He Pioneered Treeplanting in Kuvempu Nagar

Meet Mr. S.Y. Sadashiva Murthy retired Executive Engineer, PWD settled in Udayaravi Road, Kuvempu Nagar in Mysore.
Since it was a new layout there were no facilities for collection of garbage from houses in 1996. Mr. Murthy along with his friends started a house to house garbage collection drive in their locality comprising 300 houses and hired a couple of staff to do the same. They fixed a sum of Rs5/ per month from the residents. As it happens in most cases, others dropped off and it was left to Shri. Sadashivamurthy to run it more or less alone. This was run till recently when the Mysore city corporation (MCC) started this drive throughout the city.
When they started the garbage collection drive, Mr. Murthy and friends also thought of planting trees in their locality. After a couple of meeting with Forest Office officials in Aranya Bhavan, it was decided they should plant Honge saplings. They chose Honge because no animal likes to eat Honge leaves or plant. So the chances of survival of plants were very good. Once it grows into a plant Honge doesn’t need so much of watering and grow up as a sturdy tree. They got free saplings from Forest Department who also helped by giving Guards to protect the saplings.
The Group went on a house to house mission to explain their drive and received tremendous help from the residents. Most volunteered to water the plants and look after the same. They planted over 400 saplings which have grown into trees in cross roads around Udayaravi main road.
Mr. Sadashiva Murthy planted around 8 trees on either side of his house which has grown well.
He also setup rainwater harvesting system for his house and makes sure all the water is collected and in a good monsoon season, rarely depends on Corporation water.

The pictures show the trees planted on Udayaravi road and Mr. SadashivaMurthy in front of his house.

Ideal time to plant

The ideal time to plant a tree is during the rainy season, after leaf drop or before bud break. Trees that have been well cared for in a nursery can be planted throughout the growing season. Proper handling during planting is essential to ensure healthy growth. Proper site preparation before and during planting, coupled with good follow-up care, allows the seedlings to quickly establish roots in the new location and overconme what is known as transplant shock, a phenomenon that can slow the growth and reduce the vigour of the tree.
Note: It is not recommended to apply fertilizer at the time of planting. Water the seedling thoroughly with a slow stream of water to settle the soil...Taken from Trees of Laughing Waters.

Peoples initiative to Bring Back the Sparrows to Whitefield

Residents and Rotary club of whitefield Bangalore have a project where, in the immediate phase they plan to turn Whitefield green by planting 100,000 trees in a 22 sq km area and thereby make a major impact on the environment. And it is being implemented by 15 August, 2008.

Hundreds of residents in this 22 sq km area (skirted by the Outer Ring Road from Marathahalli till the suspension bridge, past the ITPL, down Hope Farm and along Airport-Varthur Road) have already begun to participate.
A hundred thousand trees have the ability to change entire eco systems. Here are four things we believe will happen:

• Sparrows will return to Whitefield
• Many species of butterflies will be back
• The water table will rise
• Carbon dioxide levels will be better managed

What are the residents expected to do:

• Help identify areas for planting trees
• Be part of the awareness campaign
• Get involved in collecting cash contributions (Rs. 100 per tree) that help plant the saplings and nurture them
• Approach companies for their Involvement Work towards acquiring an adequate number of saplings
• Be part of the tree plantation itself

more info here