Tree-planting: It runs in the family

Abhinav, Kanishkar, Sneha and Chichanya. The names these saplings would assume when get planted on streetside in J P Nagar, a Mysore neighbourhood. Idea is to give every tree on one's street an identity. Names bond these saplings with residents ; and, hopefully, give them a better chance of being looked after by the children whose names the saplings bear.
Abhinav (right) and Kanishkar carrying their saplings for planting further up their street. They gave up their game of street cricket this evening at the instance of their neighbour Ravishankar Patil. Ravi, an Air Force officer on home leave, mobilized these school students for tree-planting. Ravishanker, posted in Bareilly, devotes his home leave to the cause of greening the J P Nagar mohalla in which he grew up and the locality where his parents continue to live.
Seeing Abhi and Kanishkar engaged three others - Chinchana, Sneha and Dhanya - joined the green volunteers of 21 Main, J P Nagar. They lost no time getting down to the work on hand.





Abhi and Kanish are helped by Ravi’s mother in planting. As her son, Sqd.Ldr. Ravi Patil put it, these saplings will grow with the school boys on his street ; they would stay where they were planted, as their namesakes who planted them - Abhinav, now in Class III, and Kanishkar, 6th Class - leave school, go to college, and may move elsewhere to move on in life. The trees they leave behind would be there for them, on the very street Abhi, Sneha and the rest of them spend their childhood.
Mr K P Patil recalled that the saplings his son Ravi planted as schoolboy are now nicely grown trees in Bhadravati,Shimoga district. When the Patils moved to J P Nagar in 2003, they planted outside their house a couple of honge,representing their college-going daughter and son. Smitha,now an IT professional is married and has moved to Bangalore.Son Ravishankar, an Air Force squadron leader,is based in Bareilly.

Sqd. Ldr. Patil retains his passion for tree-planting.Saplings for street-planting are home-grown by Ravi’s mother, Lalitha, in their backyard. The honge on their house front provides seeds. Lalitha reuses empty Nandini milk packets by filling them with manure mixed soil. Seeds sown in Nandini packets are nursed into saplings, three to four months old.
Apart from giving them away to other households, Lalitha prepares ready-to-plant saplings for her squadron leader son who comes home on leave every eight to ten months.

Sqd. Ldr. Patil would like to see his street covered with saplings before leaving Mysore on July 10. His regret: many of the saplings he planted during his last Mysore visit in August have perished during street-widening by the local authorities. Those who wish to wish him better luck this time could e-mail rsppatil@gmail.com

Gurukar's plants

Honge planted around MUDA Circle on JLB Rd. in April is coming up well.Fresh leaves have sprouted on the tip of these saplings, planted seven weeks back.These saplings are special for Friends of Roadside Trees, for we discovered Mr K R Gurukar here.

On the campus

The road on which Mysore University vice-chancellor's residence is located. Stays cool round the year.

The Mail report

Sunday edition of The Mysore Mail carried a report on our gap-planting initiative. If you click on the image, you might be able yo read the text. The Mysore Mail doesn't have an online edition.
Savitha, the Mail camera girl who was on hand to take a picture.

Gap-planting in mohallas

This is about filling in the gap in tree cover on your street. For a start,we persuaded The Mysore Mail to take up planting saplings on bald pavement patches on their street in Lakshmipuram. We have made a start with two saplings - neem and a flowering tree - planted in front of the Mail office

Devaraja, who is proficient in planting,offered his services at a minimal cost. He went about his job with clockwork efficiency.Those of us assembled in front of the Mail office for the launch our gap-planting programme had a vested interest in being punctual on that Saturday afternoon - our timings clashed with the start of Korea Vs Greece tie in the World Cup. We missed the first half.
Our VIP for the evening were the Mysore Mail security staff,Shekar and his mate vinay. They did the honours by planting the saplings in the presence of the Mail editor Mr Krishna Vattam and the tree-friends who made it possible - Mr C K Muralidharan, Mr Keshav and Mr Vjaya Raghavan, all three on BEML staff.
They bought and brought the saplings,ordered the bamboo tree-guards, and wired the Green Mysore display board. Our green mantra might sound rather bombastic, for an outfit - Friends of Roadside Trees - that has so far been visible only on this blog - now on Facebook. We would like to think that the tiny step we have taken would snowball into a street-level movement in Mysore.
Even this modest start would not have been possible without proactive help from Murali, Keshav and Vijayaraghavan. Our next move is to 'green' the gap on this street. Tree-friends led by Mr Vattam plan to visit residents along this pavement streatch in the coming days, to seek their support and involvement in our gap-planting initiative.

Parthenium

Saplings planted on the Mysore University grounds are coming up well.ButI don't suppose de-weeding parthenium is seen as part of mass-planting operation undertaken by the forest dept. The university authorities haven't paid attention to the spread of parthenium.
If only the hundreds of sportsmen and morning walkers using the grounds daily address the issue as community service, and spare half hour every morning for de-weeding, the grounds can be cleared of parthenium within a few weeks.

Resilience

Where we don't want a plant to be growing. On window top of a heritage building on Sitavilas Rd.

Peepal

A massive peepal towering over Sadvidya school on Naryana Shastri Rd.

hi guys, iam always out of mysore as my work demands, but for now iam in town, would like to contribute to the team, monsoons has started so shall we take up the tree plantation drive?

Tree-plant season

It is tree-planting season in Mysore. This was the scene on the Mysore University playgrounds this morning. The state forest dept. supplies saplings. Neem is the preferred variety on this row.



Planting is still in progress.Saplings would come up all around the sprawling playfield. Monsoon is expected to start any day now and watering saplings would not be an issue.