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Tamil Nadu
Don’t kill my children
Karthik Madhavan
Ayyasamy has nurtured more than 10,000 trees in the last 25 years, which are being cut for firewood and furniture making
PHOTO: M. GOVARTHAN
Ayyasamy. –
SATHYAMANGALAM: At 76, C. Ayyasamy of Vettuvan Pudur village in Periya Kodiveri Town Panchayat limit is worried. “People are killing my children,” he says in a voice typical of the age. By children he means the 10,000 plus trees he nurtured.
He wants the trees to be protected so that people and birds in the area can lead a happy, healthy life.
“Without trees how can we lead a happy, healthy life,” he asks. The farm worker with meagre earnings took to tree planting after a radio message. “It was the ‘a tree for every house’ message from All India Radio 25 years ago that led me to tree planting,” Mr. Ayyasamy recalls.
“I thought why not plant saplings for the entire village,” he says and adds: “I wanted to plant them because there were not many trees for birds to rest.”
His fellow villager Muthusamy Gounder recalls the days: “Ayyasamy while grazing cattle, used to collect neem, pungan, malai vembuand thoothuvalai seeds and plant them along the edge of the village stream.”
The villagers say Mr. Ayyasamy has planted over 10,000 saplings. Mr. Ayyasamy, however, differs. “Ten thousand is a conservative estimate because I did it for nearly 25 years. Mr. Ayyasamy’s neighbour K. Thangaraj, 34, says he has seen the man plant saplings and seeds since his childhood.
Today, however, all the work appears to come to a naught as those looking for firewood and furniture have started cutting trees.
“We need to protect the trees but don’t know how,” the villagers say in unison. They want the revenue and panchayat administration to help them protect the trees. Is it possible to number the trees so that we will know what is happening, asks a villager and even suggests it as a measure to counter tree cutting.=
Mr. Ayyasamy even petitioned the district administration but nothing seems to have come out of it. The village administrative officer of the area says he will look into the facts.
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