Other States - Puducherry   

Efforts made to get back Puducherry’s green cover

— Photo: T. Singaravelou

Greening the town: Saplings being planted in Puducherry.

PUDUCHERRY: How many roads can you think of in Puducherry that have tall trees providing shade to pedestrians? Not many? Well, old timers recall that the Puducherry of yore (some 25 years back) used to have a lot of trees, but a cyclone somewhere down the line knocked them down.

Cadets of the National Green Corps, NSS, Scouts and Guides, school and college students, residential associations and individuals are slowly contributing to building back this green cover. The Forest Department is a major contributor to this cause.

According to Deputy Conservator of Forests P. Devaraj, last year alone (from April 2006 to March 2007) a total of 7,000 seedlings were planted in the boulevard area, Nettapakkam, Thattanchavady, Orleanpet, Thengaithittu and Kuruvinatham areas.

“Though some of them withered we replaced them and now all the saplings are doing well. Apart from the saplings the department maintains we also gave 1,62,500 seedlings free of cost to schools, colleges, the general public, industries, tank bund plantations, and farmers,” he added.

The trees that they distributed to farmers included those of teak, rosewood, thestesia, bamboo and casurina. For planting in residential areas the trees that were distributed were neem, raintree, peltophorum, badam, casia fistula (sara kondrai), casia nedusa, delonix (sehapu kondrai), Kaya Senegalenses acacia, and techoma (trees with bell shaped yellow flowers commonly called manjal arali).

In some places, especially in densely populated areas, the department faces the problem of people pulling out the planted saplings. Some also cut branches and trees. “We can only plant seedlings, water them and place guards. We have seen people stealing the metal tree guards and selling them,” he lamented.

Members of the Vinayaga Murugan Nagar Residents’ Welfare Association at New Saram are planting 60 saplings in the three streets in their area to commemorate 60 years of Indian Independence. The saplings they planted include the flame of the forest, pungam, red sandal and neem.

K. Ramu, secretary of the association, said that their MLA and Education Minister M.O.H.F. Shahjahan had laid the roads in their area in a short time. So, they were organising a function to thank him and also plant the trees. Citizen initiatives like that made by the Murugan Nagar Residents’ Welfare Association will help increase the tree cover.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Decision on market complex draws flak from CPI
Third party inspection of PWD works
Efforts made to get back Puducherry’s green cover
Power shutdown
JIPMER course in Hearing Language and Speech
AITUC demands

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu