Sunday, June 13, 2010

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.

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