The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : 1,000 saplings planted in green cover drive

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 12, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

1,000 saplings planted in green cover drive

By Our Staff Reporter

Students planting saplings at the Shastri Maidan in R.S. Puram in the city on Friday during the launch of a green cover drive by Project Siruthuli. — Photo: K. Ananthan

COIMBATORE, JUNE 11. As an extension of its core project of reviving tanks in and around the city, Project Siruthuli has taken up the task of restoring the green canopy on the Mettupalayam Road.

Road expansion and public apathy to trees had been cited as causes for the dwindling tree population along the Mettupalayam Road that had once offered a cool ride till the foothills of the Nilgiris with a thick green cover.

Timing the launch of the programme with its first anniversary today, the Siruthuli Trust, in association with the Department of Highways, planted 500 saplings on the Mettupalayam Road and 500 more at the V.O.C. Park, Shastri Maidan and the Corporation School at R.S. Puram and also at Race Course.

A cake shaped like the Noyyal Basin was cut and distributed among children to mark the "birthday" of the project. Around 100 children had gathered at Race Course to plant saplings.

"Some decades ago, Coimbatore resembled Bangalore with a dense green cover. Over the years, apathy to the trees and their removal on the grounds of hindrance had drastically reduced their number. Yet, what was heartening today was the tremendous public response. They offered to plant, water and protect the saplings. This augurs well for the future," the Managing Trustee of the Siruthuli Trust, Vanitha Mohan, said.

The entire green cover drive would have a three-pronged approach: planting saplings along highways, creating lung spaces in the city with special focus on the reserved sites of the Corporation and also provide the cover at places used by people for walk/exercise.

Besides, a special drive would be taken up simultaneously to protect trees from abuse such as nailing advertisement hoardings on them. National Service Scheme volunteers from various educational institutions and highways officials would remove the hoardings.

The Project Co-ordinator of Project Siruthuli, M. Ramakrishnan, said the Corporation had identified 37 places where lung spaces would be created. The green cover in these places and also where people walk or exercise would help later in minimising the impact of pollution. "Our aim is to protect the existing lung spaces and create more," said Ms. Mohan.

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