Celebrate life; sponsor a sapling

Wonder what has happened to a plan to plant jatropha on 40 acres of open space close to the P K Sanatorium. My reference is to the effort by Mysore-based Labland Biotech Ltd. to take this government land on 20-year lease for jatropha plantation, in the name of developing a bio-energy park. This makes business sense for the company that seeks to promote jatropha plantation among farmers. Turning the open space into a bio-fuel farm may appeal to the authorities. But as a Mysore resident I don’t think it’s such a good idea, and I expressed my reservations in a blog – Mysore bio-fuel initiative needs closer scrutiny.

Meanwhile, the Green Mysore programme, launched a while ago to plant saplings on available vacant space in the city, doesn’t appear to have made much headway reportedly because of failure on the part of MUDA to release funds to the forest department. Maybe the concerned departments could revive it, this time, in partnership with citizens, under a saplings sponsorship programme.

The idea is to encourage people to celebrate special events in their lives by sponsoring a sapling to be planted at the open space near P K Sanatorium. I nicked the sponsorship idea from Mrs Janet Yegneswaran who runs the Tree-for-free trust in Bangalore. Janet, who set up the trust in memory of her husband, is engaged in planting saplings in city neighborhoods in response to public requests. Though she doesn’t charge anything to plant trees in your neighborhood, Janet accepts sponsorship (of Rs.100 per sapling) from individuals who wish to celebrate an event their life by having a sapling planted to mark the occasion.

To illustrate the point, here is a sampling of events picked out at random from Star of Mysore the other day:

1) Putturu Narasimha Nayak felicitated with Sugama Sangeetha Kalanidhi Award;

2) Prof. N Venkota Rao, writer/social worker, presented with Nrupathumgasri award, in recognition of his 25 years in running he Mythri School for the retarded;

3) Prof.Mewa Singh of Mysore University elected as the Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore.

4) Second death anniversary of Prof. R V Hegde (remembered by family and friend through a newspaper advertisement)

5) Death of K Devaki Achappa (80), whose body has been donated to the JSS Hospital.

Aren’t these events worthy of being celebrated with saplings ? Folks who spend money on newspaper announcements of their wedding, visits abroad, their children’s success in exams, and other events worthy of celebration would be happy to sponsor saplings to be planted at P K Sanatorium or any other public space.

Comments: This post, appearing in another blog, evoked the following reaction:
Bhamy V Shenoy: This is an excellent idea. About 17 years back, MGP and a sister organization “Parisara (environment) had taken up this type of project called smrithi van (Memorial Park) and developed one in Habbal Indsutrial area around a temple there. Today it has become a forest. This may be of the few successful examples of MGPs work.
We did plant thousand of tress in two years time when we had a dynamic forest officer like Kushallapa in every vacant public land (including TB Sanitorium). Only few survived. At Hebbal we succeeded because of the committment of one individual. Now I do not know where he has gone. He was really a dedicated person to the idea of environmental protection.
Bhamy V Shenoy
Convener, MGP

Vijendra Rao: Thanks for drawing my attention to the issue. Well, why not take it up as part of “Nirmala Mysore”, being launched soon?

Dr.(Lt.Col.)Y N I Anand: The idea per se appears good. However, who will look after the plants’ growth, watering and so on once it is planted? I have no idea.
In order to overcome such doubts, I thought of planting saplings on the sides of the road where I live. So far, I have purchased 14 of them & planted - Four Honge, Two Neem, Four flowering plants & Four others. I water them periodically and feel happy seeing them grow everyday. Is it okay as an alternative?
Thanks, Dr Anand

ERR: This is very good idea.There is one problem, though.The percentage rate of saplings that die off, due to lack after care like watering etc and a proper guard during formative years seems to be high.In one of the meetings recently, DCF Chikkappiah mentioned , they need organisations which will look after the saplings.Forest Dept. is willing to provide saplings.Perhaps ‘Nirmala Mysuru’ could help here

Gagan: hello sir. this is a good idea. i had read about the tree for free project of bangalore after you reported the same on praja.
this seems interesting. all that now matters us is who will take care of the plants till they grow up.. as Mr. Anand said, i have been looking after the plants around my house.
a good idea. looking ahead for ideas for overcoming the problems.

Related items: Bio-Energy Park to come up in Mysore - The Hindu

Green Mysore project threatens to fizzle out after much fanfare - The Hindu

Mysore bio-fuel initiative needs closer scrutiny

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