FORT-Mysore

My Travelogues: Sanchi - Buddham Dhamman Sangham

2010-11-28T14:19:00.000+05:30

My Travelogues: Sanchi - Buddham Dhamman Sangham

'Kamyab' violated

2010-08-03T19:15:00.004+05:30

Felt bad to find Kamyab', the honge planted over a month back by Mr K R Gurukar, being robbed off its top leaves, presumably, by vandals. The leaves couldn't have been eaten away by animals, according to Mr Gurukar, who says cattle don't eat honge.
Mushrooms have now sprouted over this dead stump of the initial tree that had once stood on the roadside of a shopping block on Ramavilas Rd.
This was the status of 'Kamyab' on July 23 - three weeks after it was planted.

Tewari is Lucknow's 'Gurukar'

2010-07-25T11:03:00.004+05:30

Manish Tewari, 45, widely known in Lucknow as Pedwale Baba (Tree Baba) or Bicycle Baba moves about in Lucknow on a bicycle, carrying with him saplings, Khurpi for digging, and bags made of clothes. He plants on any available space. Besides, he goes door-to-door in residential localities handing out saplings and bags to residents. The cloth-bag goes with a plea, asking them give up using polythene bags.
Our own Gurukar,68, plants saplings on roadside; he is better equipped than Tewari for heavy-duty planting on hard soil - shovels, pick axe, and even plastic pots to bring water to the planted saplings.
Tewari: 'People think I am out of my mind...(doing such thing)... say its is a futile exercise".
Gurukar: Evokes similar comments from passers by seeing him digging at the roadside.
Tewari: "I regularly visit the places where saplings have been planted"
Gurukar :Does the same.
Tewari: A graduate; has been planting since 1998 . Does not rely on government or any NGO help.
Gurukar:Diploma-holder in electrical engineering, worked in Karanataka Electricity Board, and later joined the Union Labour Dept. as training officer in Bangalore;has been planting for the past 25 years,in Bangalore and Mysore (after his retirement in 2003)
Tewari: Collects small plants - banyan, neem, tamirind etc - from the wild, nurses them into saplings at home.
Gurukar: Buys saplings - mainly honge - from the forest dept. nursery, at Rs.20 a plant, spending from his govt. pension.
Tewari: Visits local schools and colleges to spread the green message.
Gurukar: Goes to Bangalore, for a week or two at a time, as 'guest' lecturer for Labour dept. training institute for electrical and other trades.
Tewari: Written about in Deccan Herald Spl. Features page.
Gurukar: Has gone unnoticed by newspapers, even those published in his own town of Mysore.

Honge Kamyab

2010-07-05T12:32:00.010+05:30

This honge in front of a shopping block on Ramavilas Rd. has been named Kamyab. It is the only one of its kind on a row of aged roadside gulmohar and neem. Kamyab is Hindi word for 'accomplishment'.So named, because the person who planted this honge, Mr K R Gurukar, has fulfilled what many of us in the neighbourhood had long wished, but couldn't get it done.

And Mr Gurukar doesn't even live in our neighbourhood. We were pleasantly surprised a couple of days back to see him at work, digging to plant a sapling at the gaping hole left by the loss of an aged tree even before I moved in in this area over five years back. Must admit that my enthusiasm for trees is not hands-on. I am not a shovel-and-tokri person. Age (I am 70 plus) can't be a factor, for Mr Gurukar, 68, has been at it for over a decade and is still going strong; has planted a thousand trees in Mysore.
He is the kind that believes in self-reliance, carrying with him on his bicycle all that he needs for digging and planting. A retired labour dept. official, Mr Gurukar spends from his pension money for the saplings he buys from the forest dept.nursery.
It was Mr K N Sreenivasa, a tree enthusiast in Chamarajanagar Mohalla, who 'discovered' Mr Gurukar for Friends of Roadside Trees, which till about two months ago was little more than a web-driven arm-chair group of tree enthusiasts, His association came as an impetus to get off our chair and do something. We are now in the process of setting up a trust to further our green agenda. A website - TreeFriends - would soon be developed to support the activities of the proposed trust.

Meanwhile, UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) has taken note of our efforts to promote tree planting. In an e-mail from Nairobi-based UNEP communication division, Meshack Mbuyi of The Billion Tree Campaign says, We read with great interest about Friends of Roadside Trees initiative of caring for the trees in the neighborhood and also celebrating life by planting of trees on vacant public space. We find the way you do this very unique and one that can achieve better results, the idea of giving every tree on one’s street an identity is a positive thought as the names are meant to bond the saplings with residents. .... we would like to invite Friends of Roadside Trees and its network of contacts to partner with the UNEP-led Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign.
This row of honge trees were planted by Mr Gurukar a decade ago, in his Saraswathipuram neighbourhood. It would be our endeavour to put the roadside tree-planter of Mysore on the UNEP map through our blog. Hum Honge Kamyab

Back on road

2010-07-02T19:36:00.008+05:30

We were pleased to reconnect with roadside tree-planter K R Gurukar this morning. Found him at work on Ramavilas Road, not far from the MUDA Circle kerbside, where the four saplings he planted a few weeks back are coming up well. Fresh leaves are showing up on the saplings that have taken roots.
Noticing us (my wife and I on our morning walk)from a hailing distance across the street,Mr Gurukar appeared equally happy to meet us to exchange notes.Filling us in on his absence from the Mysore roads all these days,Mr Gurukar said he had been away on a teaching assignment in Bangalore .
Mr Gurukar's appearance, shirtless and in soiled shorts, can be misleading. An electrical engineer by training, Mr Gurukar had served in the Karnataka Electricity Boards for a number of years before switching to the union labour ministry as a training officer in Bangalore. His old department stills invites Mr Gurukar to give guest lectures to trainees under a vocational education programme run by the labour dept. in collaboration with a training agency.

If youngsters keen on learning electrical trade volunteer to help Mr Gurukar in planting saplings on roadsides, they could benefit from his guidance in electrical engineering. I know Mr Gurukar loves guiding youngsters enthusiastic to learn. Apart from interacting with them while at work planting on roadside, Mr Gurukar can be persuaded to continue his lessons at his Saraswathipuram residence. Any takers ?

Tree-planting: It runs in the family

2010-06-29T15:51:00.015+05:30

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

2010-06-18T16:17:00.002+05:30

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

2010-06-16T06:09:00.001+05:30

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

The Mail report

2010-06-14T10:11:00.003+05:30

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

2010-06-13T07:22:00.008+05:30

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

2010-06-11T11:10:00.003+05:30

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

2010-06-09T11:56:00.001+05:30

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

Peepal

2010-06-09T11:52:00.001+05:30

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

2010-06-06T22:25:00.002+05:30

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

2010-06-02T12:57:00.008+05:30

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.

Gulmohar

2010-05-20T16:55:00.011+05:30

A gulmohar along the Oval Grounds makes a pretty picture this time of the year in Mysore. My neighbourhood has so many such trees that it is a delight taking a walk. A few more roadside gulmohars:
A path littered in red on the Maharaja College campus.
On JLB Rd, in front of the Institution of Engineers.
At MUDA nursery near DC's office.

Watering trees

2010-05-14T17:07:00.004+05:30

On our way to Giridarshini Layout this morning, Mr K N Sreenivas and I came across this row of roadside trees being watered through hosepipe drawn from a nearby private property. All trees on the row are connected with a channel that makes watering the trees a labour-saving chore. Lay of the land does help here.

Our enquiry revealed that the water is sourced from the property that belongs to Dr Sudharshan, who has planted the roadside trees. Could this be Dr H Sudharshan, the social worker and tribal activist ? The kuccha road with rows of honge near K C Layout connects T Narsipura Road.

Politics of watering plants

2010-05-13T17:33:00.007+05:30

A question every inquisitive passer-by asks when you take up planting on public space is: Who will water the saplings ? The Manjunaths of Giridarshini Layout are different. Mr Manjunath,living close to the Ganapathi temple, far from popping up the question, invited us to take water from his house. We took 12 buckets yesterday, and nearly as many today, to plant the first two saplings of the ongoing tree-planting programme.
Mrs Manjunath was our obvious choice for doing the honours with the first sapling we planted at the temple doorstep this morning. She has offered to take care of the sapling till it takea roots.
This is the sapling Mrs Manjunath planted. There are no more than a couple of other trees on the entire stretch of this road. The layout comes under gram panchayat, say its residents by way of explanation for conspicuous lack of even basic infrastructure such as proper road, sewage line and a prescribed pavement space. No open space for public park has been demarcated. As a old-time resident put it, every bit of land has been parceled and sold as plots.
In contrast to the poor infrastructure, fancy buildings have come up in the area. And fresh construction is still in evidence in many parts of the layout. Folks who lavish their wealth on house construction pay little attention to their surroundings. A few residents we met in the colony spoke of panchayat politics and lack of collective will among residents to get anything done to improve the locality. Getting such people together for a community initiative such as tree-planting remains a challenge.

As of now,we are focused on planting within the confines of the temple land. And response from the temple trustees has been positive. This may well be because a prime-mover in the current planting in the area, Mr K N Sreenivas, is a trustee himself. We asked the temple priest Suryanarayana Jois to plant the second sapling. He did it with appropriate rituals, chanting slokas. He also agreed to put in a word to regular temple visitors about the sanctity of watering the plants around the temple.
Immediate needs of water for this freshly planted sapling was met by Mr Manjunath who used his influence in the neighbourhood to bring a hose from a construction site.

Volunteer Priyanka

2010-05-12T16:59:00.007+05:30

Volunteer Priyanka, on summer break after finishing her PU exam, joined her dad K N Sreenivas and tree-planter K R Gurukar in roadside digging at Giridarshini Layout on T Narsipur Rd. My role in the tree-planting squad is that of chronicler. It was past nine in the morning when they got down to digging earth to plant a couple of honge on roadside in front Mahashakti Ganapathi Temple. The three of them slogged in punishing heat till 11 a m when I suggested we called it a day(I got tired doing little more than watching them work).
Mr Gurukar didn't seem satisfied with the day's work - preliminary digging in front of the temple to mark the start of our tree-planting programme. He wanted us to start early from tomorrow - 6.30 a m. Today, two half-done pits were watered to soften the soil for further digging before planting to be taken up tomorrow. Mr Sreenivas and I were, however, pleased with today's pace. We hadn't expected to get any earthwork done today. If it wasn't for Mr Gurukar's determination, we wouldn't have done any digging. Our visit this morning was mainly to establish contact with neighbourhood residents. As we finished talking to the temple pujari and a couple of other residents Mr Gurukar suggested we start work right away, and without waiting for a nod from us, Mr Gurukar removed his shirt and changed into his working gear.
Earlier he was engaged in conversation with Dr Krishnamurthy, who lives opposite the temple. He offered to take us to meet some other residents, and suggested we convene a residents meeting in the next few days to mobilise support. Another resident Mr Manjunath opened the tap at his residence for us to water the pits - we used 12 buckets. The temple, still under construction, has no water connection. Mr Gurukar suggested if every devotee to the temple were to bring a little water from home, we could take care of the temple saplings.
As of now, we brought water from Mr Manjunath's residence. Which meant fetching the bucket from the end of the lane by the side of the temple. The temple trustees have offered support to our tree-planting programme. Chairman of the trustees Mr Gururaj welcomed our suggestion for the temple to perform vrikshe archana. Idea is to bless saplings brought by devotees, who propose to plant them in their backyard on special occasions. Saplings can be offered in archana at Giridarshini temple , as we do flowers, coconuts, fruits and tulsi leaves. If this initiative works, the deity here could well be named Vrishe Vinayake .

Saying it with sapling

2010-05-12T06:20:00.005+05:30

Kavitha who works in our apartments block isn't particularly green conscious, but she is responsive to sensible ideas. Kavitha planted a pomegranate to mark her wedding anniversary over two years ago. That was when my wife and I had planted a couple of saplings in a public park to mark the day our grandson Siddarth started going to nursery school in San Ramon, California.

Kavitha was quick to pick on the idea of saying it with saplings. What's more, she acted on it to mark a happy occasion in her life - wedding anniversary. In our lives we have good events and dates to remember - birthday, day our children start school, pass an exam, get a placement, our first trip abroad, and several other occasions worthy of celebration. Can't be a better way of doing it than plant a sapling on our backyard, roadside in front of your homes, at any open space in your neighbourhood.

Kavitha's pomegranate is coming up nicely on the backyard of our apartment building - Premier Residency - in Devaraja Mohalla. In response to my plea she agreed to pose for a picture with her two-year old 'green' baby.

Shramdhan, anyone ?

2010-05-10T11:23:00.002+05:30

We could do with volunteers to join a tree-planting programme at Giridarshini Layout on T Narsipur Rd. We have persuaded Vrikshamitra K R Gurukar to lead our efforts to create community awareness to greening of neighbourhoods. Plan is to make a start with Giridarshini Layout.

It is a week-long programme, starting later this week. Apart from digging roadside pits for planting the programme involves a door-to-door orientation of residents towards upkeep of roadside trees; performing a special puja at neighbourhood temple to mark tree-planting. The temple has provision to perform vriksharchana for devotees seeking to plant trees to mark special occasions such as birthday, wedding
anniversary, success of their children in exams, in job interviews or placement abroad.

With school opening on June 1 parents sending their young ones to school for the first time can mark the occasion by planting a sapling in their backyard or roadside in front of their houses. What they plant would grow with their children, Years from now. as they move on in life, the tree they plant would bring them memories of the day they started going to school.

We chose Giridarshini Layout because a member of our tree-lovers group, Mr K N Sreenivas, has persuaded the temple trustees to perform vriksharchana for the benefit of devotees. Another,and a more pertinent, factor in our choice is that Giridarshini is virtually a zero-tree locality, where, where we reckon, it would be possible for us to make a difference with Mr Gurukar's intervention.

We have had several facebook friends offering help to Mr Gurukar in his work. This is a suitable opportunity for them to pitch in with shramdhan at Giridarshini. This would be a big help mobilizing local residents towards a green cause. Volunteering would involve two hours of help to Mr Gurukar in the mornings. Those who can't make it for the entire week could help out for a day or two at their convenience. E-mail gv.krishnan@gmail.com or call 0821-2421918 ; Mr Sreenivas - 9845692545 ; and Mr K R Gurukar - 9740877615

Deformed trees

2010-05-09T17:30:00.006+05:30

These trees on Chamaraja Double Rd. appear to have had deformed growth.
This one has been punished by real estate developer for coming in the way of 'development'.
This is a snag with banyan on roadside. Its drop-roots stretch into the street.
A fully grown tree that is past its prime.

A cool walk

2010-05-05T11:45:00.007+05:30

The coolest walk in my neighbourhood is on the Maharaja's campus. The road to the college from JLB Rd. is one stretch of shade even at noon.

The wooded space next to the vice-chancellor's residence has gone green in last week's showers.
A massive tree on the campus.
And the neem that is worshiped by residents on the college campus.
Tree-lined road in front VC's residence.

Pothole planter

2010-05-04T12:44:00.003+05:30

Armed with some flowers, soil, and a shovel, Wheen began doing some gardening—right in the worst of the potholes. He carefully filled in each pothole with soil and flowers, and then took a photo of his work, posting the images on his blog.
Wheen’s guerrilla gardening helps to satisfy his green thumb tendencies: “I’m a mad keen gardener but I live in a small flat without a garden,” he told Metro. Read more...

Kalyani, a friend and tree-lover in Ooty sent the link.

The bicycle talk

2010-05-04T12:05:00.006+05:30

I get a feeling that Mr Gurukar can communicate with trees. I didn't find him at the usual kerbside on MUDA Circle this morning. Instead, he was at work across the road, tending to a couple of saplings planted over a year ago by the forest dept. Several saplings planted along this road in front of Ramyas and the Cosmo Club, right up to the University oval grounds, have perished for want of care.
The surviving few needed proper earthwork to hold water when it rains. Mr Gurukar had done with this plant near MUDA office when I caught up with him to talk about his bicycle.I wanted to get an idea of the carrier that can be fixed on his bicycle. I suggested a rectangular cargo hold at the back,something light,preferably made of cane.
Mr Gurukar was not enthusiastic- "I don't need anything,sir". But we do, I pressed on,explaining to him that a cane-carrier on his bicycle,painted green with a message from Friends of Roadside TreesFORT),would help us spread the word. His point was that it would be tougher for him to load water pots on to a carrier. He feels comfortable with the way they are now placed in his bike.
He had a point.As Mr Gurukar put it,he wasn't getting any younger- he is 68,looks five years younger. How about a cane basket up front? A smaller,detachable box hooked to the handle bar? Mr Gurukar gave a non-committal smile.

Exposed roots

2010-05-03T18:01:00.002+05:30

These trees that have taken decades to grow this much need better care.Couldn't the authorities have widened this patch in front of Karanji Lake a foot or two less than rest of the road ? This would have spared the roots from being so hacked and exposed.

Gulmohar

2010-05-01T08:23:00.002+05:30

It is bloom time for gulmohar. At a traffic triangle close to DC's office.

Not a good idea

2010-04-29T18:00:00.005+05:30

This one is a freshly planted banyan close to JLB Rd. traffic lights in MUDA Circle. Virshamitra Gurukar, who has been at work on this roadside patch for the past one week usually plants honge. Cattle don't fancy the plant. A fully grown honge provides good shade. Emits with oxygen anti-tuberculosis substance in the air, according to Mr Gurukar.
Honge doesn't need a thorny tree-guard. Other saplings such as banyan do, to protected them from ravage by passing cattle. Mr Gurukar went for banyan, presumably, on advice from a passer-by. His point was no one (other than cattle) vandalises a banyan because of religious sentiments.
This banyan on T Narsipur Rd. is worshiped by villagers. Auspicious day in the week is Monday, when people from nearby villages flock to this banyan to do puja .

Snag with planting banyan is you never can tell which way it would spread as it grows up. Planting one, that too close to a traffic signal on JLB Rd., amounts planting a potential traffic hazard for our grand-children and their children. Surely, we wouldn't want, do we, Mr Gurukar to be remembered by future generations for sowing a seed for a traffic hazard. Besides, it is never a good idea to have roadside trees that spread horizontally.

Timbered trees

2010-04-29T09:18:00.003+05:30

Authorities gave credible reasons - rail bridge and under-pass widening - for turning these roadside trees into timber - 25 of them. But have they said anything about compensatory planting ? Green groups and NGOs have a legitimate case to press the railway authorities to plant two or more trees for every one felled on K R S Road, Mysore.

After last night's shower

2010-04-28T09:05:00.009+05:30

I missed Vrishamitra Gurukar at MUDA Circle (JLB Rd.)on today's morning walk. Instead,I found these boys doing their workout on the green patch. Last night's shower has evidently done some good for the saplings Mr Gurukar has planted in the last few days. Having run into him for the past two days, working on saplings at MUDA Circle, I was hoping to find him there today, and for the next few days.
I wish the boys, attending a soccer training camp at the Mysore University athletic grounds, had the opportunity to meet our 'green' man. When I mentioned this to their coach Gururaj he said the boys jog around in the neighbourhood every morning, and he and his boys would be happy to help Mr Gurukar in planting work.

I mentioned to Mr Gururaj that our new-found tree-lover friend plans to plant three more saplings at MUDA Circle; and so he can be found at this spot for the next few days, before he moves on to some place else for planting his saplings. Wouldn't it be nice if planter Gurukar and fitness coach Gururaj make a connection? Mr Gururaj works in the ticketing section at Mysore Railway Station.

Tree-planter Gurukar

2010-04-26T17:56:00.007+05:30

Mr K R Gurukar, retired government official, tree-lover and avid planter. He plants mainly on the roadside; honge saplings that he buys from the forest dept. nursery. He has been doing this daily for years ; has planted a thousand trees in Mysore since 2002, when came to settle in Mysore after retirement as training officer of the dept. of labour in Bangalore.

Every morning Mr Gurukar sets out on bicycle from his Saraswathipuram residence to scout for suitable vacant space where he can plant, to do earthwork for planting the next day; and to water the sapling he had planted earlier. A hands-on person who waits for no one Mr Gurukar represents an ideal role model that FORT-Mysore can have.
But then FORT-Mysore, an online group of the friends of roadside trees, and Mr Gurukar could have stayed unaware of one another, had he not been introduced to us by a santhe enthusiast Mr K N Srinivas. Mr Gurukar is not an online person; he doesn't have an e-mail ID, not even a phone connection. We made the connection through Mr Srinivas, who has his own plans to plant fruit-bearing trees in Mysore's home for the aged, orphanages, and other institutions.
Mr Gurukar was doing earthwork for planting when we - Mr Srinivas and I - met him , on the roadside near MUDA Circle on JLB Road. He carries with him the digging kit - shovel and things - and also a couple of plastic pots for watering the saplings.
A tricycle with cargo hold would be more convenient, if someone could come up with a donation. Mr Srinivas has offered to find a sponsor. FORT-Mysore could chip in, if need be.
Honge is Mr Gurukar's favoured sapling for roadside planting. "Cattle eat away other saplings," he says, adding he gets honge plant for Rs.20 from the forest dept. nursery. On an average it takes him two days to plant a sapling and he has planted two already on MUDA Circle roadside.
Mr Gurukar often slogs it out on his own, without waiting for or seeking anyone' help - 'occasionally, I get one or two passers-by coming up to help'. Mr Gurukar can be an inspiration for neighbourhood green groups. Parents could encourage their children during vacation time to join Mr Gurukar in roadside tree-planting. Schools could invite him to address their students.
His address: Mr K R Gurukar, C H 61, V Main Rd., III Cross, Saraswathipuram, Mysore 570009

A WAKE UP CALL TO THE MEGA RETAILERS OF INDIA

2010-03-17T22:23:00.007+05:30

Everyday millions of plastic bags are being dispensed at the cash counters of supermarkets, retail chain stores and mega stores across Indian cities and towns. This include the stores that we especially urbanites are familiar with and patronize like Reliance Fresh stores, Big Bazaars, More Stores, Foodworld supermarkets, Nilgiris supermarkets, Fresh @ Retail Stores (Heritage Group’s), Vishal Mega Marts, etc. to name a few.
Plastic bags are harmful to our environment as they are not bio-degradable in nature. So they cause soil pollution. Secondly they cause serious harm to animals and birds as these plastic bags get into their body while the birds feed on felt over food from the garbage dumps from our cities & towns. Many birds & animals even die because of such instances. These needs to be address immediately else the situation is only getting from bad to worse.
As citizens we need to adopt one simple practice, i.e., we need to CARRY OWN CLOTH BAGS whenever we go out for shopping. The MEGA RETAILERS ALSO NEED TO PLAY A CATALISING ROLE TO REVERSE THIS TREND. It is heartening to see one of the retail chains in Bangalore has done something commendable for this environmental cause.

The photos show the quiet campaign run by "Smart" chain of retail outlets in Bangalore. There is an urgent need for all the bigger retail chains also to display responsibility for the plastic bag menace they are indirectly responsible for spreading across the nation today. "Green-Step" is an organization in Bangalore which is working for this cause. Green – Step looks forward to hear from all the retail chains in India on this need for immediate action. The need of the hour is for us to run determined campaigns against plastic bags and support people in switching people to cloth bags. It might be in the form of charging people if they don’t bring their cloth bags, selling cloth bags on no-profit basis in all the retail stores, urging people to bring cloth bags from their homes. By educating and sensitize the masses on this subject and providing them a means to "Switch to Cloth Bags and avoiding plastic Shopping Bags" we can bring about this most needed change in the way the Indian Urbanite shops tomorrow. The question is which retail chain would take the lead and provide the kind of inspirational leadership that every other retail chain would like to follows suit? Are the Ambanis, the Birlas and the Biyanis are listening?

Green-Step, Pictures by C G Sriram +91 9740082847 – Bangalore.

Project as part of Landmark Education.

A very symbolic Neem at the Qutub Complex...

2010-02-02T09:12:00.005+05:30

On a recent visit to the Qutub complex, one had mixed feelings about the historic facts on display. Myriad reactions made their presence felt - wonder, pride, regret, anger, irony...
One look at this neem tree located to the right as you pass the entry gate - is just the right panacea that replaces all those feelings with peace. That was my takeaway from our visit - the comforting impression that this country has always granted all that every visitor demanded of her, even if the intentions were malafide

That's one very contented neem that lives and lets live umpteen other species under it - like Bharatvarsh (India) will ever continue to do...

Tree worship

2009-12-31T17:10:00.004+05:30

There appears a caste system even among trees. Peepal, neem , jackfruits and a few other species, are, presumably, the brahmins among trees. Far from felling, people worship them.

A wounded Tree

2009-12-20T10:58:00.006+05:30

A massive tree on Naryana Shastri Rd. close to Marimallappa College crossing was found badly battered and broken on Sunday. Its sturdy stem has cracked up, with the branches falling down under their own weight.

Roadside Ad.

2009-12-17T07:15:00.002+05:30

Roadside trees serve the purpose of billboard for advertisers who do not do anything in return. If only these advertisers were to plant trees on occasions, they could generate more roadside ad. space in future.

'Green' MLC

2009-11-10T18:39:00.002+05:30

Mr K T Srikantegowda, MLC, has used his public position and stature to influence people and officials to join him in a mission to plant trees in his area. He is reported to have planted 22,000 saplings during the last five years.

To mark the first anniversary of his membership in the legislative council the 'green' MLC and former principal planted a thousand saplings on the premises of a school and on roadsides in and around his native Bekkatale village in Maddur taluk.

Recently, in celebration of his five years as MLC Mr Gowda planted saplings at a government women's college in Mandya. Apart from roadsides and educational institutions he has planted nearly 2000 saplings on open space around a village temple at Thoppanahalli, near Maddur.

Revisiting Mysore schoolyard banyan

2009-11-09T07:12:00.009+05:30

We have been here before. A recent meeting with Vinay of Royal Mysore Walks threw up some ideas on getting the grand old Mysore banyan on tourist map. It is now on Facebook - Mysore Banyans

The banyan on the Baden Powell schoolyard has been so much a part of our landscape that most of us in Mysore pass by the green sprawl without pausing for look-see. Other towns brag about their banyans,hailing them as a living heritage.

In Chennai they have made a legend of the Adyar banyan. This, and the one in Kolkata are widely known among tourists. They are written about in tourism literature, in blogs and dedicated websites; profiled in wikipedia. How many of us in Mysore know or care to find out about our schoolyard banyan, its guesstimated age, the size of its spread ? Do you know the grand old banyan has 823 drop-roots ? I don't either; merely it made up to make my point.
Looking at this tangle, can you figure out a way to count them. Your guess is as good as mine.What matters is the legend,the story we build up on the banyan.Do we have one?
An earlier post in FORT-Mysore blog evoked a comment from a long-time resident and senior journalist Gouri Satya. He recalled his schooldays spent under the Baden Powell banyan - "the ideal spot for us, scouts of the Ramblers' Scout Group to learn roping and earn a badge". His school, named after the founder of the Scouts & Guides movement, houses its district headquarters.
Mr Satya suggested the schoolyard banyan be named after Baden Powell. He noted that Jayachamaraja Wadiyar was a boy scout, and had gifted the land on which the school and the scouts & guides office building has come up.Camps,jamboree and training of the boys and girls for the Vijaya Dasami procession have been held for generations on this banyan grounds. Mr Satya recalled an occasion when they had a group of boy scouts abroad camping under the banyan.
Another old student, now a company executive, Shankar Prasad associates the grand old banyan with his schooldays cricket and training for NCC parades. We could put together banyan reminiscences of the likes of Satya and Prasad in their school alumni.

Of the many banyans found in and around Mysore the one at the Baden Powell schoolyard is centrally located - next to Crawford Hall; across the street from the Deputy Commissioner's office. How do we put the banyan on Mysore tourism map ?1) Get the municipal authorities to put up a green signpost - Baden Powell Banyan - on Hunsur Rd and JLB Road. And at Kukkrahalli gate close to Nanjangud rail-track.

2) Spread the word among online friends about Mysore Banyans facebook page. Input from informed Mysore residents would help collect resource and reference material on the banyans - there are two on the Baden Powell schoolyard.

3) Scouts & Guides at training camps can be encouraged to explore the schoolyard banyans.

4) The banyan can be a topic for class-room project of local schools, a subject for students painting competition.

5)Royal Mysore Walks can develop a banyans walk.

Ashwin's take on planting

2009-08-04T00:19:00.002+05:30

Although I always loved planting trees, I never used to get into the grassroot level. Recently, Aditya, a SJCE student and volunteer at Vivekananda youth forum convinced me to start tree planting in a different way; No laborers or money involved but instead we do the task ourselves. We dig the pits ourselves, ask the homes around to provide us with decomposable waste, plant the trees, provide thorn protection and water it. Every day, we make it a point to talk to at least two neighbours. I was never so convinced about this kind of grassroot level work until now.

More on this, at Ashwin's blog.

SAPLINGS AS THAMBOOLAM

2009-07-12T06:27:00.001+05:30

The thamboolam is a mandatory take home at all Indian festivals and ceremonies, at weddings especially. The thamboolam bag (made of plastic, cloth or some polyester fibre, rarely of paper) contains a coconut or grapefruit, a couple of betel leaves, a packet of betel nuts – all auspicious tokens.

I don’t know what others do, but when I come home with the thamboolam, I put away the betel nut packet to be passed on, throw away the betel leaves which have started wilting, and use the coconut to cook. The bag if sturdy enough, will be reused as a carrier bag, that is if one doesn’t mind being the publicity person for the caterer. I have often felt that the fancy bags are a waste - especially when I see the grandeur of the bags – so much money spent on things no one really wants.

Long before the advent of plastic, the thamboolam was packed in ordinary paper bags on which the bride and groom’s names were printed. As plastic came into vogue, thin bags were used. Little by little the bags grew in size and show…….

So I was heartened when I read this news. Mayor of Chennai M. Subramaniam introduced an innovative concept at the wedding of his son recently, one that can be emulated by all. He gave away as thamboolam 3000 saplings to his guests to take away and plant. This delighted all environmentalists and eco-conscious citizens – zero pollution, plus greening.

The saplings are all avenue trees, and he had made arrangements with a nursery for the saplings to be readied by the time of the wedding.

I loved it, and I am sure GVK, fellow blogger, who has been pushing for distribution of saplings on all possible occasions will too. Many of us can follow this trend.

Planting on pavement

2009-06-30T00:58:00.001+05:30

To prevent haphazard growth of roots of roadside trees, insert a pipe along with the root of the plant into the soil so that the water supplied does not flow horizontally. This method will control the growth of the root and ensure that the roots grow vertically downwards thereby preventing damages to the pavements and road.

From - Laughing Waters

Planting hazzles

2009-06-29T20:48:00.003+05:30

Some years back, I asked the local corporator to join me in planting a tree. He came, planted the sapling himself, posed for the photos and left. A few days later, someone had vandalized the sapling and I planted another one in its place. The reason for the vandal was that a advertisement board had to be seen in place of the sapling. This time again it was vandalized. After the third one perished, I went to the corporator who had planted the tree. I came back with an indifferent advice from him, ‘Someone wants to make money by displaying his ad. Let him make money. Why do you bother about a tree?’.

So reads an excerpt from Ashwin's blog post. Thought his observations might interest the rest of us in the group

A wedding at a tree-loving family

2009-06-22T06:39:00.003+05:30

At the wedding of his daughter in Mysore Mr K Pugglendi presented each of his guests with two fruit yielding tree saplings. Volunteers were seen asking the guests to plant them in their backyards.... Read more...

Tree-line plan for D Urs Rd.

2009-06-21T20:37:00.002+05:30

In response to our ealier post Ashwin has come out with a brief note in his official website.
Ashwin writes: As of today, 14 trees exist on the kilometer long road. Just 14! I did a quick math to find out how many trees can be planted in all. Considering the intersecting roads, electric poles and a gap of at least 15 feet between adjacent saplings, 240 trees can be planted (both sides included)...To get a sense of his plan,and view the images Ashwin has in mind for Devaraja Urs Road, access Sapgreen.

Greening D Urs Rd.

2009-06-18T06:25:00.005+05:30

I wonder at what stage is the Prasanna-Ashwin initiative to tree-line Mysore's Devaraja Urs Road. Ashwin Upadhyaya and Mr Prasanna have their commercial establishments on one of the city's oldest market areas. Their plan is to mobilise shopowners for planting suitable pavement trees that provide shade for shoppers and parked vehicles.
I don't know if the Prasanna-Ashwin initiative includes sidewalk-landscaping, such as this one in San Jose, California.Maybe there isn't much scope,considerng that pavements on D Urs Rd. are not wide enough.Or maybe they could try it out on the Coffee Day Kerbside,where we turn right, into JLB Road.

Meanwhile, I wish to share with Ashwin and Mr Prasanna some photos on the sidewalk planting done in San Ramon, Calif.

Leave behind your MEMORIES - Tree Plantation at Karur Public School

2009-05-25T15:50:00.009+05:30

If we look back into our School Life today... we wonder if our teachers still remember us..? Some are remembered because they were extraordinary brilliants, some because they were very naughty and some only because they were good at something (singing, dancing, sports etc). Today when I go to my school they remember me because I was the most naughtiest and was always on the sports ground. It feels just GOOD... because they Remember..! :)

We at NISARGA, work a lot with schools as we do Nature & Outdoor based education programs all across Karnataka. On one of such program I met Santosh who is young and so passionate to give one of the best of the best education to his students. He owns 2 schools in Davangere and they are coming up with the new school campus at Karur both residential & day school. As we were on Summer Nature Camp at Kemmangundi one of the nights we were talking about doing planatation and landscaping at the new campus. That is when I suggested instead of going for ornamental and exotic trees if he would be interested to go for Native & Fruit bearing trees and also landscaping with more Butterfly host plants. The idea is to encourage and support the population of Birds & Butterflies inside the campus which in turn justifies all our efforts in introducing the Nature & Outdoor education Curriculum (activities like Workshop on Birds, Butterflies and also Biodiversity Study etc) for the students.

Nature Study while on Trek to Hebbe Falls

As the discussion went deeper n deeper, I recalled some of my readings of GVK promoting TREE planation to mark occassions at Family or Individual. Being one of GVK's admirer, right there an Idea popped into my mind and suggested Santosh if we can ask every student to plant a sapling as soon as he gets admission and take care of it untill he stays in the school. Santosh was very excited with this and immedeately said yes to it. So we have this thing take off with this years admissions and hopefully continuing for many years to come. For me I wonder if this can be one best way to "Leave behind your MEMORIES" at your school where you spend the most important era of your LIFE.

"Wish if more Schools can adopt this IDEA"

Anybody interested to know more about NISARGA Nature & Outdoor education activities please do contact me at naturelover009@gmail.com or call me at 99800 17105 / 99025 91345.

Greenery amidst concrete jungles

2009-05-16T09:39:00.006+05:30

This huge sub-city in the capital is a 'modern' monstrosity. The USP of this sprawling residential locale called Dwarka includes - apartment blocks with ethnic names, wide roads, generous service lanes, crowded sector-wise malls, oh-so-hard water. But amidst all the concrete, we catch glimpses of green, occasionally yellow of the konna flowers (the Indian laburnum flowers blossom in May here) and varietis of bougainvilla. Here's a Vishual treat. (The konna flowers are an integral part of the Vishukkani set up in Keralite households on the occasion of Vishu).

Chamarajanagar tree slaughter

2009-05-01T16:38:00.007+05:30

The milestone on Sathy Road says Chamarajanagar is just 10 km away. From here we drove past scores of slaughtered trees all the way to the town. Amputated tree trunks on the roadside bore mute witness to an officially sanctioned havoc to green cover.
This stretch of the road close to Chamarajanagar town has apparantly been left untouched. Could it be because the timber contractor, working his way towards the town from the sixth milestone, has yet to make it here ? Whatever the reason it was refreshing to see a patch of road well shaded with roadside trees that are decades old.
If axe-men have their way, this shaded stretch may well become a memory.Giving way to a widened, if tree-less, stretch of road such this one.
Timber contractors are at work,sawing and axing freshly chopped trees into manageable pieces of firewood.
Logs on the wayside await transport to saw mills and carpentry shops.
You could do a 1000 words on the chopped tree in this picture.
But who needs words when the trunks can speak. Road-widening is cited as an explanation. What is often not so obvious is a minor fortune some people could stand to make by lobbying for widening roads rich with old avenue trees.
Telltale remains of a chopped tree on the left of the big one suggest that road-widening may well be a pretext for converting trees into high value timber. In many cases trees that got axed could have been saved, with marginal realignment of the stretch marked for widening. But then saving trees fetch no money. And these are sturdy old trees, on which there is much money to be made by bringing them under axe.

'Green' school at Vijayanagar

2009-02-13T18:09:00.009+05:30

Right across the road from the public park in Vijayanagar colony where our Ugadi plants are coming up is Ananthageetha Vidhyalaya. The school stands out for its greenary.The teachers here take as much care of trees as they do their students. The trees, on their part, provide a welcoming shade; and LKG teachers prefer to hold classes out in the open.
Friends of roadside trees(Fort-Mysore) found this school eminentally suited for trying out their pet scheme to initiate school children into backyard tree-planting. Some of us in Fort have been plugging it, with little success. This may be because we have been talking to wrong people.
Ananthageetha seemed a promising school from where we could make a start. They have planted even on public space in front of their school. "These trees are four years old," said the school founder K N Anantharamaiah, referring to their pavement plantation.

Within the school campus there are rows of teak, where students spend their lunch time. The management has throughtfully provided granite-slab benches where they have lunch.
The rows of teak gave us a context to talk about our scheme for student tree-planting. The idea is to persuade parents seeking school admission to plant a sapling to celebrate the occasion when their young ones start schooling .The sapling and their child would grow together. And children would relate to saplings planted to celebrate their schooling.
Prof.Anantharamaiah didn't need any persuasion to see the benefit in the child-sapling idea. Snag, he said, was that they had no more space in school for trees. We suggested that the children could plant them at their own backyard or on pavement close to their house. Referring space shortage the school founder noted that Ananthageetha had a strength of 320; and senior boys and girls used the public park across road for recreation, as there is not enough play-area within the school premises.

Prof.Ramaiah said they had already started admission process for the next academic year; and that our suggestion could be tried out with parents who bring children for fresh admission. He wasn't sure, though, about parental acceptance - 'we can't ensure implementation of our suggestion'. Mr E R Ramachandran of Fort-Mysore noted that the number wasn't important. Even if 10 percent of parents and students are persuaded to plant rees at their backyard, it would be worth a try. The children who do take up tree-planting could be motivated by the school. The best boys and girls from the nursery, primary and middle standards should be honoured on the school annual day. ERR came up with the idea of Friends of Roadside Trees instituting prizes for outstanding student tree-planters.

Ugadi plants - a status report

2009-02-10T17:06:00.005+05:30

This isn't just any public park in yet another residential locality. The plants you see in the picture has each a story to tell. But their collective story began on Ugadi day last year. When two green entreprenuers in Mysore - Anil Kumar and Ashwin Upadhyaya - chose to launch their company - Sapgreen - at this public park at Vijayanagara-II. The enterprising duo chose the venue, brought the saplings and requested the invitees to plant them. It was a unique way to inaugurate their company.
This was how the park looked on the inagural day (April 7, 2008) The invitees included several neighbourhood school boys who use the park to play cricket. The ground was green, because of seasonal showers during those days. When we - ERR and I - re-visited the place this morning the park looked drab and dry.
We were however pleased to see a touch of green on the tufts of the 10-month old plants, coming up in an orderly row. The tall one in the foreground, a neem , was planted to celebrate the day my grandson Sidharth started going to play-school. Sidharth goes to school at San Ramon, California; and the neem we planted to celebrate the occcasion is nicely coming up at a public park in Mysore.
Here, his grandma planting the sapling in Sidharth's name on Ugadi day. Maybe we made a big deal of his pre-schooling. But then any event in the family is a cause for celebration for us. Besides, it gives us a pretext to plant a sapling. If every other person in a neighbourhood were to mark every family event - be it your children's birthday, your wedding anniversary, your daughter's graduation day, your son's first job placement, or his first trip abroad, India visit of your children based abroad - by planting a sapling in their backyard or on pavement in front of your place, we could turn the neighbourhood green.
I persuaded tree-lover ERR to pose with his sapling, a mahagony. Among other notable Mysoreans who planted saplings on Ugadi last April were veteran journalist Krishna Vattam and Snake Shyam.

Banyan tree at Beirchaa Lake

2009-01-06T17:40:00.010+05:30

Simply delightful and awe-inspiring to see a generously canopied banyan tree at Beirchaa lake, in MHOW, Indore. The tree even offers a strong arm as a swing that extends over the embankment. The mutiple trunks and aerial roots are quite closely spaced and provide myriad ideas, glimpses and dialogues if you care to spend a few moments with them!

A search engine that plants trees

2008-12-23T12:32:00.002+05:30

Ecocho.com is eco-friendly search engine which plants five trees for every 1000searches made on its website. Ecocho uses Yahoo’s search technology to power searches made on their site and the resulting trees are purchased from advertising revenue generated on the site.

Ecocho has planted 6,571 trees at the time of posting this message. I know this. because I have made the ecocho search engine the home page on my computer.

Green-STEP: Making a difference to the environment

2008-12-21T13:36:00.014+05:30

Green-STEP is one major break through in my personal life. With the help from like minded friends and my own resolve to make a difference to the environment I created a web site titled Green-STEP. I invite readers of this blog community to our web-site. And let me tell you that the moment you pledge yourselves to these or any other green measures in your own lives, then this becomes your own web site!

Recently Green-STEP organised an awareness program on plastic bags/covers pollution problem in Malleswaram, Bangalore on 6th Dec 2008. This event was covered by an article appearing in 'THE HINDU' newspaper dated 16th Dec 2008. On seeing the response/results, for once I feel I have been in action in my own life.

'STEP' stands for 'Sharing Thoughtful Environmental-friendy Practices'. In green-STEP website we have shared information on how each one of us as individuals can take simple but powerful 'ACTIONS' to make a difference to our environment. To give you an idea about Green-STEP, it talks about following issues:-
1) Urgent need to switch to cloth bags and avoid the highly polluting Plastic Bags.
2) Reduce, Reuse and if both are not possible then recycle! Be it plastics, paper, glass, steel, aluminium, brass, copper, etc., We must recycle all these and more, even if we can afford the world cannot afford such resource wastages.
3) In case you use an automobile, read how you can save fuel by reducing the virtual capacity of your fuel tank. Save fast depleting resources of mother earth at the same time add to your own bank balance:-)
4) Never drive your bike or car all alone. Drop some one on the way from a bus stand or auto stand. What does one loose by dropping some one on the way? Nothing! But what we gain is huge, we can arrest the maddening addition of vehicles to our city roads which is infact strangulating the smooth movement for the current road users. Unless we do something to this exponential addition of vehicles to our city roads, sooner are later we will definitely hit a wall and we will not even know what hit us!

There can be many more simple and effective green-STEPS which the readers of this blog may be aware and may want to share with the entire world. Do write in to me on sriram.greenstep@gmail.com and also feel free to tell me what you feel about these green-STEPs spoken about in this web site.

A rakhi for trees; vriksha bandhan

2008-12-16T17:00:00.003+05:30

The Taru Bandhan ritual being practised in the tribal heartland of Jharkhand has helped restore and conserve hundreds of acres of forestland, writes Moushumi Basu, a Jharkhand-based journalist.

The decade-old ritual was the initiative of a village school teacher Mahadev Mahato from Dudhmatia in Hazaribagh district. In her article Moushmi Basu reckoned that Mahato has helped restore nearly 25,000 acres of forestland - “For the natives of Jharkhand, the forest is an inseparable part of their life; why not include trees as part of our family and rituals,”. Palamau, Dhanbad, Chatra, Koderma and Hazaribagh are some of the districts that have taken the initiative in propagating this unique “green tradition”. Read the full article...

Heritage Trees: Five, and counting

2008-11-24T11:17:00.006+05:30

The committee for protection of heritage trees has named a 300-year old tamarind as a heritage tree on the Gangothri campus. It is the fifth one to be identified for the heritage status by the committee, comprising 30 plus environment enthusiasts in Mysore.

The Hindu reports that among other heritage trees identified by the committe are 1) the big banyan on T Narsipur Road;2) a peepul on Manasagangotrhi campus;and 3) a silk cotton in Curzon Park. The newspaper hasn't named the fourth one.

Would the committee fill us in on the location of this heritage tree? We could also do with their photos.

On the status of the Gangotri tamarind, committee spokseman Prof.Ramalingam said a major branch of the 300-year-old tree was in a state of decay; and that the tree has perhaps only a few more years of life left in it. The professor noted that tamarind was very susiptible to lightning strikes.

There are scores of other trees awaiting heritage cerification. Wouldn't it be nice if Prof. Ramalingam and others in the committee share their thoughts on the criteria for identifying a heritage tree? This would help tree lovers to recommend trees for the committee cerification.

Meanwhile we would like to draw the committee's attention to some of our 'finds'in the city. Not all of these tress may merit heritage status.
The banyan at the Baden Powell Public School. "I cherish the memory of this tree because here I spent my boyhood evenings as a scout and this beautiful banyan was the ideal spot for we scouts of the Ramblers' Scout Group to learn roping and earn a badge," says veteran journalist, Mr Gouri Satya.
This tree at a Dewan's Rd.temple must be as old as the temple.
This tree on the SJCE campus was phtographed by tree enthusiast Gagan K. He says he has more such photos in his archive, and would post them here,if the heritage committee would care to consider them.
An aged tree vandalised with graffiti at Pinjrapole. Wonder if such matters come within the purview of the committee to protect heritage trees. the photo was mailed to us by Prashant, an IT professional.
Another photo by Prashant taken at Mysore Pijrapole.
A massive tangle of drop-roots of an aged tree on JLB Road.
This tree at Hotel Metropole, JLB Rd., may not merit heritage status. But it might be worthwhile for the committee, with the support of the hotel management, to bring out a profile of this tree, its history, and the tales it might carry, for the benefit of environment-conscious tourists staying/visiting the hotel.

Ad-lined Avenue

2008-11-08T17:24:00.004+05:30

Ads may not grow on trees; but they sprout close to them on this tree-lined avenue.
Mysore is advertised as a heritage city. One wonders what could have prompted a heritage-conscious city administration to permit this.
When the hoardings first appeared a couple of years back there was public protest.

A walk around the lake

2008-11-04T11:22:00.018+05:30

Nearly three years back I wrote about a stench from the lake and Kukkarahalli mo(u)rning walkers. Three days back we took a walk along the lake.
This stretch is more than half-way on the 3.5 km walkway round the lake; and those of us who have problem doing the whole round at a stretch could do with a bench for a stretch out,like these ones on the bund close to the main entrance.

A couple of these benches would have better use if they could be relocated on the farside of the lake.

The farside presents a picture of neglect.
This stretch is not just unpleasant to look at. It smells foul as well. A fresh coat of paint on the bridge is long overdue; the water under the bridge that hasn't been treated or cleaned for a while appears a fertile breeding ground for mosquito.

The green patch has crept into the main the water body.

Some scenic pictures. Photos don't lie, they say; but they don't tell all either. They don't smell,do they.

Better maintained spots on the lakeside;they make a visit to Kukkarahalli worthwhile.

Morning mist, Mysore

2008-10-28T08:34:00.007+05:30

Ramdass takes a power-walk

2008-10-24T11:28:00.004+05:30

A much talked about politician in Mysore nowadays is Mr S A Ramdass,MLA.He is young, energetic,and proactive,notably, after he got nominated parliamentary secretarty to CM. Mr Ramdass doesn't wait for people to come to him with grievances; he reaches out to meet them in their own neighbourhoods, by taking a power-walk.

The BJP MLA sets out daily, on a morning walk that takes him to a diffferent locality each day. The walk keeps Mr Ramdass fit, physically;and helps him stay visible , politically.It is a two-in-one idea that ought to make every other politician wonder,'why didn't I think of this'.

Mr Ramdass has a bunch of people walking with him, even at 5.30 a m. His pre-dawn walks attract media attention. Neighbourhood residents await him with petitions and grievances. Municipal officials pay attention because they believe MrRamdass has CM's ears. This is not padayatra; it's power-walk, by a man who knows how to
use his position.

Friends of Roadside Trees believe Mr Ramdass can help push the green agenda during his morning walks.

1)Mr Ramdass can plant a sapling in every neighbourhood he visits; and appeal to residents to plant saplings on roadsides and other vacant public space in their
neighbourhood.
A tree-less patch on D Subbaiah Road, Devaraja Mohalla. The lone roadside tree was planted by a school boy living across the street. A pat in the back and word of praise for the boy by Mr Ramdass during his visit to this street (behind Rotary School) would motivate others.

2)The CM's aide, who admits to being religious minded, could promote the idea of devotees offering saplings in puja at their neighbourhood temples. The saplings blessed by the deity could either be planted on the temple premises or at one's own backyard.

Related item - Celebrate life; sponsor a sapling

Landscaping sidewalks

2008-10-15T18:22:00.011+05:30

In refreshing contrast to its sister institution,the Maharani's college on JLB Road has a well-laid out sidewalk. Maharaja's college, next building down the road presents a picture of neglect,with an outgrowth of partheneum. Two government educatonal institutions, located side by side, present contrasting pictures.

Memo to college principals

2008-10-14T10:38:00.002+05:30

The department of collegiate education is reported to have sent out a circular asking principals to organise tree-planting on college campuses in Karnataka. Hopefully, we would get to see some action on this patch of green in front of the Maharaja's on JLB Road. The company that undertook to maintain this patch appears to have lost interest. The department circular is said to have asked college principals to co-ordinate their action with the horticulture and forest departments.

Coastal erosion: A green wall for protection and for profit?

2008-10-13T21:53:00.004+05:30

Let us forget the communal strife in Orissa for a moment and look at a natural calamity the state faces repeatedly. Frequent tidal waves and the soil erosion caused by them endanger the lives and properties of lakhs of people along the 480km shoreline of Orissa.

IIT Chennai and some other agencies are studying this issue and have reportedly submitted some preliminary recommendations. In the meantime, the Orissa Government has approached the Central Government for financial support for a Rs.7000 crore project to save the coastal villages from the ravages of the sea. The main focus appears to be on building protective walls along the shore.

There could be a far cheaper, more effective, eco-friendly and profitable project to prevent soil erosion. My suggestion is to try planting Morinda citrifolia (Noni) along the coast. This plant, which is endemic to India, is unfortunately on the endangered list now.

How do plants prevent soil erosion? When rain water runs off to lower levels or waves recede to the sea, they take away loosened soil with them. The stem of trees and the roots mitigate the erosive force of flowing water, thereby preventing soil being carried off. The native plants are best suited for this.

I took these photos in the coastal belt of Kerala.
Copyright reserved. Click on photos to enlarge.

Significantly, Morinda citrifolia (Noni) is also known as Indian mulberry and Beach mulberry. It tolerates saline and secondary soils, can withstand drought conditions and grow well on sandy beaches. It can attain a height of up to 20 feet and serve the dual purpose of preventing soil erosion and acting as a windbreaker. Normally stem cutting is used for propagation. The planting distance is about 15 feet apart. Once introduced, it will start growing wild.

The benefits of planting Morinda citrifolia are not confined to protection from coastal erosion. It is actually considered to be a wonder plant with immense medicinal values. India has known that for thousands of years. But the Western countries started taking note of this gift of nature only in the 1990s.

And, in less than two decades, the Noni (Morinda citrifolia) products, particularly the juice made from the fruit, have turned into a business that is worth billions of US dollars! By planting Noni (Morinda citrifolia) along the coastline the country can, apart from preventing soil erosion, capture a major chunk of the fast-growing Noni market.

Additionally, greening such a large area would help in reducing the carbon levels. And, it does not take long to feel the impact. Noni starts yielding in 18 months and has a productive life span of around 40 years!

The only negative point is that during flowering time the plant emits a foul smell.

Why not give it a try, at least in small stretches?

Urban Heat Islands

2008-10-12T22:19:00.003+05:30

Have you herd of the term “Urban heat islands”? Next time your old uncle complains of rising temperatures in Mysore, you may want to listen more closely. UHIs are urban areas that are significantly warmer than their surrounding rural landscapes. The main causes of UHIs are typical “urbanization” strategies…tarred roads, RCC buildings, loss of garden spaces/ farms etc. UHIs modify rainfall and warming patterns of not just the city, but its surrounding rural/forest areas too. See this wiki note on UHIs for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_heat_island. You could also check out http://www.urbanheatislands.com/.

Urban tree plantations are important UHI mitigation strategies. So, what FORT Mysore is trying to promote is a very important activity which will ensure Mysore remains cooler, Mysoreans use less energy to keep their homes/offices cool, and that Mysore does not alter rainfall or temperature patterns of its surrounding rural landscapes too drastically.

There has also been a lot of talk about “Green highways” in the developed world. For example, see http://www.astm.org/SNEWS/SO_2008/bryce_so08.html. In the Bangalore-Mysore region, we seem to be taking a few steps backwards…by replacing our tree-lined highway with a cemented four-lane “hot”way.

These informative research articles might interest some of you:

http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/programs/cufr/products/1/psw_cufr746_energyconspotential.pdf

http://www.neduet.edu.pk/Arch_2Jne/Arch11/JRAP-2001/JRAP%201/Heat%20Island-New.pdf

Writings on the board

2008-10-08T11:58:00.007+05:30

The notice board says it all - about the maintenance of a green patch in front of the Maharaja's high school on JLB Road in Mysore. The writings on the board refer to corporate social (ir-)responsibility. The state of the notice board (which mercifully wipes out the name of the company that undertook maintain this space) smacks of inaction by the municipal authorities.

And,above all,it speaks of community's indifference to such violation of public space. The green patch in front of the Maharaja's high school, a heritage building on the tree-lined JLB Road,had once seen better days. The company that undertook to landscape this patch has evidently lost interest.
The municipal authorities (or is it MUDA) that take care of parks and public spaces that could do with landscaping appear to be unaware of the state of neglect or uninterested in doing anything to give a face-lift to the frontage of a heritage building.

This picture, of a sidewalk in San Jose, California, gives an idea of what is possible by way of landscaping even a narrow strip.

Hyderabad - Bangalore - Is all the same?

2008-10-07T09:15:00.002+05:30

People had told me that Hyderabad was a great place to see now. They said it had lot of fly-overs and wide roads and comfortable traffic. I asked them, can I take my son and wife to see the place. They said.. you must take them. I had the opportunity last week, and I went there with my son and wife.

By the way, my son is One year and two months old now. He loves parks and watches curiously birds in the parks. He chases dogs and plays with kids in the park. If someone in the family doesnt take him out on a given day, he feels irritated and keeps pointing to the gate. And I thought, I can show him Hyderabad. So, off we went. And Hyderabad had everything, except trees. Hi-Tech city has beautiful buildings, but no trees, only rocky land. I visited Indian School of Business. Lush Green lawns and a bit of greenery inside, 100 yeards off the place.. nothing but rocky land. And when I asked why this was so, they said, we have no water to plant trees. And how would you get water if you didnt plant trees?

Bangalore had 200 lakes, I am told. Now hardly 10 remain. They dont have water and hence dont have trees at Hyderabad. We have lakes, but still we dont have the willingness to grow trees. Are we not being stupid? Everyone at Hyderabad said "You are from Banaglore! Wow! Its a nice place, cool and green!" Believe me that we their response. And we are making this city bare and naked in the name of modernization.

Know what my son loved there? The Nehru Zoological Park. We had planned to spend only a couple of hours there, but ended up spending the whole day under the shade of trees, while my son watched the lions and tigers, the birds and the monkeys in cages and was learning to imitate their sounds. His enthusiasm was at peak during that time. He didnt cry or even fuss about for anything. We had been to all other places like Golkonda, Salarjung Meuseum and Chilkur Balaji Temple, Lumbini Gardens and the like, but my sons response was the greatest when we were roaming around in fresh air under the trees.

He used to get irritated because of the hot weather in all places. He used to be ok for some time and then start cribbing for water or fussing around for something to eat and he never let us watch anything for a long time. But, in the zoo park, he was his own self. The very enthusiastic, curious, naughty and smiling young kid that he is. When we wanted to move away from a cage, he never let us move unless he had completely satisfied his curiosity. How much should he have longed for the fresh air of the park. And I know that all kids are like this. They love nature. They love fresh air. And what are we doing? Cutting down trees and destroying parks for widening roads!

If kids love nature, Bangalore Kids must love them the most. But, unfortunately we are taking what they love the most from them. I have seen parents coming to malls with babies and kids spending time in malls. What nonsense? Malls today aspire to be destinations of entertainment and have special kid zones. Parents leave the kids there while they do some shopping, and the kid gets to play in an Air-Conditioned environment. What a pity? In Bangalore, do you need an artificial air-conditioned environment for your kid? We have the ability to make our kids more happier in greener environments and all that we think of today is aritificially created "clean" environment. And we clear parks for creating Malls. I dont think we are going any closer to being modern.

Well thats about the size of my agony. Got anything to say about it? Post your comments and I would respond.

My trees...

2008-10-06T16:33:00.011+05:30

Hello,

I am new to this very interesting and active group. I am thrilled to know that there are people like you going around actively planting trees in your neighbourhoods. I would like to share a few scattered, random notes. I have carried these notes in my head for years, and I feel like sharing it with you since you might be able to appreciate them.

I grew up in a tree-lined old area of Bangalore. As a kid, on the way to school, I used to make it a point to "greet" two Akash mallige (Millingtonia hortensis) trees. I worshipped these two tall, graceful trees. Come September, their lovely white flowers lined the roads. Sadly enough, one of them was cut down to widen the road. I wonder how long they will let the other tree remain in the crowded streets of Malleshwaram.

I have been watching trees all my life. Due to this, I have developed this strange gait while walking...head tilted up slightly, with very little attention being paid to where I put my next step. I have often tripped, stepped on muck and bumped into people. My landmarks across Bangalore used to be trees...and I rarely remembered street names or other features. In the late 90s I moved out of Bangalore for a decade. And when I came back, I could not find my way around my home city. They had chopped down that lovely old Butea on 15th cross. Where were those Acacias on the way to school. Even those lovely temple trees in our neighbourhood gardens were gone.

Anyone who watches trees, cannot help but note the differences between our cities w.r.t trees we plant along the roadsides. New Delhi is one of my favourite urban zones. They have such lovely, tall native trees planted along the roads....Kusum /Sagade (Schleichera oleosa), Arjun (Terminalia arjuna), Amal Tas/ Kakke (Cassia fistula), Jamum (Syzygium cumini), Mango (Mangifera indica) and many others. Such native trees are home to many more animals compared to exotics (i.e., from other countries) such as Eucalyptus, Australian Acacias, Rain tree, African tulip tree which we have planted along Bangalore/Mysore's streets. A native tree has food to offer to our insects. These insects in turn are fed upon by several birds and mammals. Our natives have lovely flowers (Kakke, Flame of the forest etc), many provide wonderful shade (the list would be endless) and are easy to grow. Yet, urban forestry in Karnataka is monopolized by exotics.

My grandfather was a very observant and knowledgeable man. He too grew up in Bangalore. But the trees he remembers from his childhood in the same neighbourhood are very different from what I saw when I was a kid. He used to talk about Tare, Allale, Honne, Sampige, Margosa, Nandi (see picture attached - thats not a Eucalypt, but our lovely Nandi) and other lovely trees that grew here. Slowly, these were cut down as the city expanded. Later, some streets were planted with exotics such as Mahogony, Tabebuia, Rain tree, African tulip tree, Australian acacias and so on. Strangely enough, neither Margosa nor Sampige road in Malleshwaram have either of these trees lining them.

More recently, as part of my work, I have been studying forest trees in the Niligiri landscape. For this purpose, I had to collect seeds and make seedlings of several native species common in the Deccan plateau (see picture). It has been a wonderful experience getting familiar with these lovely trees of our forests. I have given away most of my seedlings to interested people in and around my study area. If any of you are interested in procuring and planting such natives in your streets, you can buy such seedlings from the Keystone shop in Masinagudi or Mavanalla. These are villages on the road to Ooty, and these shops are located on the highway itself.

If you want some inputs about how to identify and grow such native trees, I am always available. There is also vast quantity of literature (mostly contributed by Britishers who lived in India) on how to grow our trees.

regards,
Soumya

tree planting by kids

2008-09-11T11:43:00.000+05:30

good show kids, keep the same josh going

Community Planting

2008-09-10T17:25:00.005+05:30

Kids planted over 70 trees at our colony. They have formed a group called ecoLife. Target is to plant 2000 trees with 200 different varieties. Tree Diversity they call.

Ecolife started small , 3 of them and now it is a group of 20. Every week ecolife tries to plant 10 saplings. Perhaps, each colony can form a small kids group and plant 3 saplings a month. Then , in a year we would see 36 trees in a street!.
More info can be obtained from laughing waters.

Reply to previous post: "tree plantation"

2008-09-06T15:30:00.003+05:30

Ravishankar's post raised a very important question regarding where the members meet. And what is currently on the agenda. Although we have done a lot of activities in the past few months, all were done separately as individual activities. Naveen planted more than 50 trees at Gokulam. We at Sapgreen with the help of various Eco-conscious people planted more than 450 trees since April and ensured that all are standing well. Everyone here has contributed in one way or the other in greenifying the city. Sometimes, motivation from members itself has been a great catalyst. However, I think we need some more coordination and planning to make an even larger impact.

Recently, I noticed deforestation at a few lakes around Mysore. Varuna lake in particular doesn't even have a proper boundary defined. As a result encroachment into the lake bed would be a fairly easy task. More so considering the pace at which Mysore is growing. We can at least plant the boundaries of this lake with bamboo which is fast growing and could act as a natural boundary. We could think of planting other species of trees later. I can even get the bamboo seeds for planting, so we could start any time. Being a lake shore, water wouldn't be a problem too. May be, we could have this task as our current agenda. Other suggestions are welcome too.

tree plantation

2008-09-06T11:30:00.003+05:30

hi
iam the latest member of fort mysore blog, its time for us to act fast, i would like to know where
do the members of the group meet. iam interested in knowing what all things are planned and wold like to involve myself into the group

pats

Trees at temples

2008-08-26T11:52:00.001+05:30

A pipal tree is usually found in front of temples. Sometimes a combination of two or more species (pipal / jackfruit / mango) mark the entrance to bigger and older temples in Kerala. (In Tamil Nadu you are likely to find combination of pipal and neem trees). It's interesting to see the canopy of mixed foliage, and the different barks growing entwined from their respective roots.
The pipal-mango combine is sometimes called 'Almavu' (intended as a pun for the word for soul in Malayalam).
Pictures of some of them taken during a 'Nalambalam Yatra'. Please click on picture for better views.

The tree(s) at Bharata temple, Koodalmanikyam, Trissur District

The tree(s) at Lakshmana temple, Moozhikulam, Trissur District
The tree(s) at Shatrughna's temple, Payammel, Trissur District.
This kind of parallel coexistence with intertwined barks and roots is likely because the pipal grows easily out of crevasses.
Actual Marriages of trees, and marriage with trees are religious customs in India.
Cross-posted from Feast for Thought

Watering your garden

2008-08-20T21:02:00.004+05:30

Gardens tend to consume massive amounts of water; something that's becoming an increasingly scarce resource. Irrigation accounts for the bulk of water use in homes, particularly in drier areas over the summer months. A few of the biggest mistakes made are:

a) Plant selection; usually by using plants that aren't native to the area
b) Sprinklers that throw water up into the air, which is then windblown or evaporates
c) Watering during the hottest part of the day
d) Over-watering

Here's some tips for reducing your garden watering footprint - and to save some money on water rates at the same time. More...In Green living tips...

Tree graffiti

2008-08-04T05:38:00.004+05:30

Our friend Prashant mailed these pictures, asking me to put them on this blog. Any tree-lover would be appalled by such defacement .
It is a baser form of exhibitionism that drives some people to vandalize trees this way. The pictures were taken at Mysore Pinjrapole.

SJCE-Trees

2008-06-22T22:18:00.002+05:30

About 60 saplings were planted at Sri Jayachamarajendra college of Engineering today. In a few years, this place would be a forest just like the Manasagangothri university campus in Mysore.

More...

In tribute to his mother

2008-06-21T00:27:00.002+05:30

Deepak Joshi, an advertising professional in Bangalore, planted 100 trees as a living tribute to his mother. Here, a picture of the planting at a school.

Sourced from a tree lovers' blog

Parking lot

2008-06-16T19:34:00.004+05:30

At the Bangalore International airport.

At a public park in San Ramon CA.

Methusaleh - An ancient tree reborn

2008-06-13T20:58:00.003+05:30

The oldest-sprouted seed in the world is a 2,000-year-old plant from Jerusalem, a new study confirms.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080612-oldest-tree.html

Saplings planted - Gokulam Park

2008-06-11T11:42:00.006+05:30

Gokulam Park Road residents with the help of SAPGreen , planted 49 trees on june 7th. Ashwin from SapGreen organized the Saplings, transportation,manure and labour. All the 49 saplings were planted in a single day and were of a minimum 8 foot in height.
Following are the different species that have been planted.

Indian Tulip: 8
Mahagoni: 4
Wild Almond: 5
Nagalingam: 1
Maulsari: 1
Saptaparni: 8
Kassod: 5
Indian Almond: 4
Neem: 4
Kadamba: 1
Bauhinia: 2
Akash mallige: 3
Sura honne: 3

About that airport green-corridor idea

2008-06-07T20:58:00.003+05:30

A green belt along the road to the new airport at Devenahalli was what we had in mind when we first read about Janet’s tree-for-free trust. Creation of a Banglore resident the trust plants trees on public space. You can dial a plant, and Janet does it for you. People sponsor planting of saplings in celebration of their birthday, wedding anniversary, graduation, placement, promotion.

A California-based NRI had 21 saplings planted in Koramangala, Bangalore, in celebration of her three-week India vacation. Vaishnavi said bon voyage to fiancé Sandeep on his posting in Singapore. If everyone who goes abroad the first time – students for higher education, II and other professionals on their first foreign placement – were to plant a tree to mark the occasion, we would have tree-cover all along the road to the airport in three to five years from now.

Airlines and tour operators could offer tree-gift certificates to tourists, who wish to have saplings planted to mark their Bangalore holiday. Besides being a PR gesture, tree-gifts could be yet another way companies could meet their corporate social responsibilities.

In response to an earlier post on the green corridor an observant reader, Mr Guru, left a comment saying that BIAL road is all set for a ‘green’ look; and sent us a link to a recent article in Mid-Day about a joint initiative by the Bangalore city corporation and the horticulture department

Cross-posted from Giving It A Shot

Gokulam Park Road residents attempt to woo back the birds and squirells

2008-06-06T12:38:00.009+05:30

Residents association of Gokulam Park road will go on a Tree planting drive this Saturday June 7th. Over 60 Trees will be planted with the help of SAPGREEN. Below is the plan created and presented by Ashwin of SapGreen.

Please contact SapGreen if any of you wish to gift a Tree. The Park has its own water supply and the corporation has provided a full time caretaker.

TreePlantingGokulamPark - Upload a doc

Cut the other tree

2008-05-28T19:45:00.003+05:30

"I will allow you to plant this tree if you cut down the tree on the other side of the shop"
Never expected that I would hear something like this ever. More on this on the Sapgreen blog.

GVK in his comment on the blog asks if property owners can claim their right to the public space in front of their house/building. I hope the government authorities come out with clear policies in this regard.

Painting the town red, with a touch of green

2008-05-23T22:19:00.009+05:30

Sapgreen, the tree-plant enterprise, seeks to spread this green message by planting a wide variety of saplings at strategic locations in Mysore. Ashwin of Sapgreen says they have procured some 250 saplings of 20 varieties of trees. They are tall – nearly ten feet; which put these saplings above the reach of goats and stray cattle.

I do not know how they plan to tree-guard the saplings. These pictures, taken in a San Ramon (CA) neighbourhood, prompt us to improvise a supportive contraption, with bamboo and strips of discarded tyre.

Such supportive tree-guards account for a streamlined growth, which is essential for saplings planted in localities such as the shop-front pavement on Devaraja Urs Rd.

Skewed growth, such as this one, on Crawford Hall may be seen as an art form. But this wouldn’t do for a busy street with narrow pavements such as Devaraja Urs Rd.

Devaraja Urs Rd.could do with tree-cover that can provide much needed shade for shoppers and traders alike during long summer months.When I mentioned this to a shop-owner, Mr Prasanna, he welcomed the idea; and offered to do what it takes to plant a couple in front of his own establishment – Sudharshan Jewellers. Another location where Sapgreen could think of planting their showcase saplings is in front of the Coffee Day outlet at the JLB-D-Urs Rd corner. Saplings on such locations could bring Sapgreen the kind of visibility it requires to spread its Green Mysore message.

Yet another suitable spot is Javagal Srinath Circle on JLB Rd., where there had once been a tree. A short distance from this spot is a hotel that is coming up. Its developer could be persuaded to adopt a couple of Sapgreen saplings.

A tree slot on Sitavilas Rd., close to MUDA Circle

Tree-planters of Mandeveli

2008-05-09T20:07:00.005+05:30

Internet is a powerful medium which can be used to promote/educate . . . and, perhaps, rediff could support/sponsor for free web hosting for NGO's like Global greenways, wrote a Mandaveli, Chennai, resident in response to a Rediff.com feature by Shobha Warrier. The piece, about a tree-loving duo, Mr V Subramaniam, a retired RBI official, and Dr R Madhavan, was written in 2003. Fellow blogger Naveen Chimmanda fwded it to us the other day.

And this evening, Dr Madhavan, who took my call from Mysore while attending to patients in his Chennai clinic, said matter-of-factly he didn't have time for the Internet and rarely checked mail, though he had an ID. His Global Greenways that has planted trees in thousands over the past two decades doesn't have a website. Dr Madhavan pleads lack of time "for that sort of thing", though, I sense, it is not uncommon for folk of his generation to be unaware of the potentials of the Internet and of what the web can do to promote a cause or an idea. It is for the public-spirited techies to initiate them into the ways of the Internet, and, as Mandaveli Bala suggests, sponsor free web hosting for Global Greenways.

"We don't plant any longer; only supply saplings," said Dr Madhavan, who, with Mr Subramaniam, used to go round Chennai on a tricycle loaded with saplings, looking for vacant space to plant them. When they started this, some two decades back, they were termed by some as crackpots. Within a year of their start, the 'crackpot' duo had planted over 400 saplings in Mandaveli.

When word spread about their activity, the duo were invited by residents elsewhere in the city. And they obliged, planting it for free, on the only condition that the residents undertook to take care of the plants. "We used to get calls from northern Madras asking us to plant trees, and we would travel more than 20 kilometres to plant them," Mr Subramanian is quoted as saying . Dr Madhavan gifted saplings to all his patients.

When I asked him about funding, he said it did not cost them much to supply saplings. He has a nursery of his own. Tree-guards were sponsored by the United India Insurance Co., says the Rediff article. Dr Madhavan, who has a farm in Inchampakkam, said his nursery could supply upto 500 saplings at any given time; the doctor also kept saplings in his Mandaveli house, presumably, to give them away to his patients.

Read Shoba Warrier's Rediff Special - How green is my Chennai.

A tree thats almost gone

2008-05-08T18:49:00.003+05:30

When sapgreen first appeared in Deccan Herald, we had a call from a person. The lady asked if we had a "Pagade tree". Now whats that ? Back then we were not specific about the type of tree. We just wanted someone to plant a tree. I said "ma'm, sorry we don't have that" Few minutes latter her daughter called to congratulate us on our venture and she asked us what exactly do we do ? Few minutes of talk and I realized they just loved trees lot more than anything. They protected every branch of a tree that surrounded there neighborhood, requesting,yelling at people not hurt the tree. The Khan's were a great tree lovers. Yet they failed to procure a single sappling of "Pagade tree". This is when we realized the importance of "the type". A little research on this tree (You fill find it here it's called MIMUSOPS ELENGI L) and we came to know there are only few trees of this left in Mysore, yes just 3-4 of them, after lot of searching around, I finally found THE TREE, in the " Chandravana Garden" of Mysore. This is a garden maintained by govt. ayurvedic hospital.

Khan's loved this tree, the fruit was a favorite for her father. It seems it was lost generations back, people haven't heard about such a fruit for long. It is now standing tall as a laboratory specimen.This is when we promised the Khan family to get it for them, now it is a part of sapgreen's goal to get these rare trees back to life. My next visit to Chandravana will be this saturday, I will try to get some pictures an procure the pagade fruit and see if one of our nurseries can grow it back for us. I will get some pictures of this gorgeous lesser known garden of Mysore. This is a place every tree lover should visit once. It is opposite to University swimming pool. It's a beautiful forest with lots of ayurvedic plants, you can try some of these and believe me you will have fun with lot of tongue twisting and sweet leaves.

If anybody is looking for a rare species of a Tree, let us know and we will do our best to procure it for you.

Gone, a life of hundred years...

2008-05-07T12:36:00.002+05:30

Reproduced here, a poem on the death of a tree, aged 100 plus, by a 14-year-old, who chose to voice the unspoken agony of having its life cut short mercilessly by the very people whom the tree had served faithfully.

Poet Deepti Raghuram who calls herself 'freakish', runs a blog - 'Heal the world'. Isn't that a freaky title for a teenager's blog? Here, then, is her piece, as we found it - no Caps; not much punctuation.

gone a life of hundred years
cut mercilessly at its base
yet it neither showed its fears
nor the pain on its face

the cries of 'i served thee faithfully'
could not be heard
nor its sounds of pain; is it right that
death should come as nemesis for others gain?

the killers did not know
about the great life they had taken away,
nor were they bothered
when the birds from home flew far away.

betrayed by the people whom
it first had defended,
yet they were the same people
who were 'friends' as they once had pretended.

as it fell undefended
the tar ground became its first resting place.
was this the respect to pay
to a life of 100 years but still gay?
Alas, not one thought, not one asked.....

No more home delivery

2008-05-06T10:24:00.003+05:30

Mysore's green delivery company - Sapgreen - has stopped planting saplings at people's houses because, they say, it costs more than what they charge for the service - Rs.125. Sapgreen's Ashwin, in a blog post, claims transporting saplings posed a hassle. As he put it, "for planting just 2 saplings, we had to travel 10km in one direction, then back and again 10km in the opposite direction of the city. Totally, 40km".And they have just one person doing the job; and cycling 40 km, merely to deliver two or three plants, isn't worth the effort. It doesn't result in "much value addition anyway".
I thought Sapgreen was a Mysore company, in the sense that its tree-planting service would be available to the entire city. Now that they have declared their focus would be "on companies and persons willing to sponsor planting in (designated) public space", my sense is that Sapgreen isn't thinking beyond their current sphere of operation - Gokulum and Vijayanagara.
As someone living in Devaraja Mohalla, Sapgreen's self-centric approach wouldn't hold much appeal to me. Nor would it,I guess, to someone in Vonttikoppal or Vidyaranyapuram. If I plant a sapling to celebrate a family event, I would rather see it planted close by, if not in my backyard. Ideally, we would all want to watch them grow.
Besides, neighbourhood plantings in varied localities ought to make marketing sense for Sapgreen;and even get them the much-needed word-of-mouth publicity mileage. Wouldn't marketing/publicity of Sapgreen's services cost money? Wish Anil-Ashwin do a rethink on their core plan. I wish I could pick up the phone and voice my misgivings, as I used to do when Sapgreen was still in its formative days and its promoters were in regular touch with some of us in FORT-Mysore.

He Pioneered Treeplanting in Kuvempu Nagar

2008-05-03T10:43:00.004+05:30

Meet Mr. S.Y. Sadashiva Murthy retired Executive Engineer, PWD settled in Udayaravi Road, Kuvempu Nagar in Mysore.
Since it was a new layout there were no facilities for collection of garbage from houses in 1996. Mr. Murthy along with his friends started a house to house garbage collection drive in their locality comprising 300 houses and hired a couple of staff to do the same. They fixed a sum of Rs5/ per month from the residents. As it happens in most cases, others dropped off and it was left to Shri. Sadashivamurthy to run it more or less alone. This was run till recently when the Mysore city corporation (MCC) started this drive throughout the city.
When they started the garbage collection drive, Mr. Murthy and friends also thought of planting trees in their locality. After a couple of meeting with Forest Office officials in Aranya Bhavan, it was decided they should plant Honge saplings. They chose Honge because no animal likes to eat Honge leaves or plant. So the chances of survival of plants were very good. Once it grows into a plant Honge doesn’t need so much of watering and grow up as a sturdy tree. They got free saplings from Forest Department who also helped by giving Guards to protect the saplings.
The Group went on a house to house mission to explain their drive and received tremendous help from the residents. Most volunteered to water the plants and look after the same. They planted over 400 saplings which have grown into trees in cross roads around Udayaravi main road.
Mr. Sadashiva Murthy planted around 8 trees on either side of his house which has grown well.
He also setup rainwater harvesting system for his house and makes sure all the water is collected and in a good monsoon season, rarely depends on Corporation water.

The pictures show the trees planted on Udayaravi road and Mr. SadashivaMurthy in front of his house.

Ideal time to plant

2008-05-01T05:54:00.002+05:30

The ideal time to plant a tree is during the rainy season, after leaf drop or before bud break. Trees that have been well cared for in a nursery can be planted throughout the growing season. Proper handling during planting is essential to ensure healthy growth. Proper site preparation before and during planting, coupled with good follow-up care, allows the seedlings to quickly establish roots in the new location and overconme what is known as transplant shock, a phenomenon that can slow the growth and reduce the vigour of the tree.
Note: It is not recommended to apply fertilizer at the time of planting. Water the seedling thoroughly with a slow stream of water to settle the soil...Taken from Trees of Laughing Waters.

Peoples initiative to Bring Back the Sparrows to Whitefield

2008-04-30T12:00:00.004+05:30

Residents and Rotary club of whitefield Bangalore have a project where, in the immediate phase they plan to turn Whitefield green by planting 100,000 trees in a 22 sq km area and thereby make a major impact on the environment. And it is being implemented by 15 August, 2008.

Hundreds of residents in this 22 sq km area (skirted by the Outer Ring Road from Marathahalli till the suspension bridge, past the ITPL, down Hope Farm and along Airport-Varthur Road) have already begun to participate.
A hundred thousand trees have the ability to change entire eco systems. Here are four things we believe will happen:

Sparrows will return to Whitefield
Many species of butterflies will be back
The water table will rise
Carbon dioxide levels will be better managed

What are the residents expected to do:

Help identify areas for planting trees
Be part of the awareness campaign
Get involved in collecting cash contributions (Rs. 100 per tree) that help plant the saplings and nurture them
Approach companies for their Involvement Work towards acquiring an adequate number of saplings
Be part of the tree plantation itself

more info here

Ugadi plants – three weeks on

2008-04-28T11:10:00.005+05:30

It has been 21 days. And the saplings planted in a Vijayanagara public park are coming up well. Never mind MUDA’s yet un-kept promise to provide a waterline for the plants. The park has been dug up right through, awaiting pipe-laying and water connection that has to be given from an adjacent park. The contractor who did that job is said to be holding back, presumably, because MUDA has yet to settle his bills.

The mud-line dug through the park, awaiting water connection.

Sapgreen duo – Anil and Ashwin – who have been chasing officials reckon that the MUDA water pipeline would probably have to wait till the Karnataka assembly elections are over – “officials are busy with election work”. Some of us may be naïve enough to ask, ‘what has elections got to do with MUDA settling a contractor’s bill, for a job that has already been done?’

Anyway, watering of the Ugadi plants has gone on, thanks to enlightened benevolence of a resident close to the park; and the generous offer of Mr Ananthanarayan, principal of Anantha Geetha Vidyalaya to provide water. He is known in the neighbourhood as a tree-lover and has planted a row of trees on his school-front roadside.

Row of roadside trees in front of Anantha Geetha Vidyalala

During our visit to the park on Sunday we noticed a Sapgreen employee bringing pots of water from a tank at a nearby house construction site. And the Ugadi plants are being watered because of the benevolence of this resident. Hopefully, this arrangement can be kept in place till the third week of May when monsoon expected to set in.

Meanwhile, an elderly resident sitting with four friends on the concrete slab of a roadside culvert, took us to be city corporation officials. He said plant-and-forget has been the history of saplings planted in the park so far. Referring to our visit he said he had seen this happening (tree-planting) twice in earlier years; and the plants died for want of care. He chose to speak for the culvert sitters.

Anil told the skeptics that things would be different this time; and no tree would die. Unconvinced, the elderly resident observed that this was what they all said while planting. And after the ceremony and photo-taking they all disappeared, never to return. Here is a challenge for Anil and Sapgreen. The way to change their mind is proper upkeep of the plants in the park.

Mr Krishna Vattam, Mr E R Ramachandran, and I tried reasoning with the ‘culvert panchayat’, saying it was as much their responsibility as Sapgreen’s, if only because residents are the immediate beneficiaries of the tree-planting in the park. The spokesman of the group, still unconvinced, said such community involvement ‘worked only abroad’. He seemed to think that tree-care was the responsibility of those who plant them. He knew of Thimmakka, but reckoned that every one ‘can’t be so lucky with media and get the credit for what she did’.

Can anyone think of a better definition for cynicism? Anyway, if the ‘culvert panchayat’ was skeptical about this enterprising tree-planting effort, there were others in the locality whose complaint was that Sapgreen hadn’t done enough to create public awareness about their initiative. Prof. Kiran Kumar walking his dog around the park observed us from afar, tinkering with the saplings. We walked up to engaged him in tree-talk.

Tinkering with a three-week old neem in the park

That Prof. Kumar knew of Mr Vattam (with whom he had once shared the top table at a college function) helped matters. He readily volunteered to help Anil-Ashwin get in touch with other residents. Ashwin, who has already met Prof. Kumar, could count on him to further the green message in the area. Other things Sapgreen could try are:

1) Keep residents informed about Sapgreen’s tree-planting calendar. The company planted five more saplings in the park on Sunday (April 27), but none of the residents we spoke to were aware of the event.

2) Put up a signboard with the message – Saplings in this park, planted with Sapgreen’s help, are maintained by residents and the boys cricketing in the park.

3)Spread the message among nearby schools – Anantha Geetha, JSS and a couple of others – to encourage newly admitted students – LKG and primary classes – to plant saplings to mark the event. Their parents can watch their children growing with the trees they planted when they joined school.

Elections, sapgreen

2008-04-26T12:28:00.003+05:30

In this blog i would like to talk on two things. One about elections and another thing about sapgreen status.

ELECTIONS:
Somehow this time's election commission's strict rules alongwith the supreme court guidelines and sincere attempt by district administration, we are seeing that this election is turning out to be less harmful for GREEN. What i mean is that, more the plastic buntings, flex posters, plastic flags, more it is against the environment, and against green. I am happy that this time, we are not seeing much of these buntings which harm our environment. We have to surely remember the CEC Gopalaswamy. Well done sir.

SAPGREEN:
My friend told me the sapgreen had finished planting some 160 saplings. This is a great number in a small time. Meanwhile i'm yet to plant my sapling through sapgreen. So we have to be happy that sapgreen project is on its way being successful.

I saw the plant database on sapgreen website. Some days ago i had seen only a spreadsheet of the tree database. Then i thought of this idea of using database and querry system. And the software guys have used their skills very very well. Kudos!

And a post on sapgreen says that now onwards a payment can be done through credit card. Great deal of course. Now anyone far from mysore can gift a tree through online payment. Online payment can be done through this page.

It is also a good news that sapgreen has been now associated with UNEP's plant billion trees project. Way to go ahead.

I was busy from 2 weeks with other works. I could not attend the planting drive organised on 20th of april.

Sapgreen is going in a great way. Being a company, revenue is very important. 160 saplings and 300 rupees per sapling means good revenue in short period.

Election costs

2008-04-25T22:01:00.007+05:30

This gigantic structure serves no purpose now. Earlier, it held a 40 foot tall Kumaraswamy cutout. Thanks to strict election norms in Mysore district, he is no longer showcased there.

At least a dozen trees must have been felled for no purpose at all.

Save Trees. Trees Save.

2008-04-25T22:01:00.006+05:30

I saw this ad and it made lot of sense.Trees help save lives too...

The Road to Prosperity

2008-04-25T08:12:00.004+05:30

A Thing of beauty is a Joy for an Hour

2008-04-24T22:56:00.003+05:30

Some time ago I had posted a blog about our roadside plants. Elaborating the same, I would like to start by saying that the plants are in full bloom and a lot of flowers beautify the road, just for an hour or sometimes, even less. I had mentioned that there exist many plant thieves. However, the number of flower thieves far exceeds their number.

These thieves come at all odd hours. I never believed in plucking flowers myself for use in our own God’s room till I realized that I may also pluck flowers from the garden nurtured by me when the entire world steals flowers without any qualm!

On one of the rare days, when no one had stolen flowers, I took some photographs. Included in the photos is a beautiful Lily (I do not know the name of the plant) globular in shape with multiple flowers within it. I was lucky to photograph the same. However, when I went back into the house for other jobs and returned after an hour the whole thing had vanished!

Similarly there is a very good yield of “Kanigale” flowers only to be stolen by others. The theft was even faster. My m-i-l was sitting in the verandah till 1 PM. I returned from my clinic at 1.30 PM. Within this half an hour, somebody had polished off the entire “Yield”! On another occasion, I went for work at 3.30 PM. By the time I returned at 4.30 PM, the entire yield had disappeared.

Once I happened to catch a thief red-handed. He was an elderly man, had no shame, remorse or any such feeling when I caught him. What is wrong if I pluck flowers when I am offering the same to God? – He asks me! I never knew that God loves stolen flowers more than those that were grown by the devotee or purchased by him! I took the bag from him, poured the lot over his head and asked him then to offer the same to God. Can you believe if I say that he picked up the whole thing and walked off? Only when I caught him for the second time and warned of serious consequences, he stopped walking in front of our house.

These thieves include people from all classes, age and sex no bar. Most of them are morning walkers carrying plastic bags in their hands. They land in front of your house long before you wake up and steal the flowers in a jiffy! Some of them even open the gates, enter the house premises and steal the flowers grown within the compound also. They teach their children the finer aspects of stealing flowers from somebody else’s house

There are other types of thieves called the “Commercial Thieves”. They are the small time flower vendors. They hunt for flowers since the price in anything between 10-20 Rs a meter. These stolen flowers easily add up to 3-4 meters in addition to the flowers purchased by them and thus they earn an “extra income” of about a thousand rupees a month. A good business indeed!

In the end, it is the flower grower who groans and is made to look foolish for having grown them to last for just an hour after blooming!

How-to and Where-to plant guidelines

2008-04-24T11:28:00.002+05:30

Planting trees around your home will conserve energy and lower the cost of utility bills. Three well-placed deciduous (leaf-losing) trees on the east, south, and west sides of a home will shade it from summer sun and lower air conditioning costs by 10 to 50 percent. In addition to saving money, conserving energy directly translates to less carbon dioxide produced at the power plants.. .Read more on how to plant in American Forests website.

Gulmohar in bloom

2008-04-23T10:55:00.013+05:30

It is now bloom time for gulmohar.
These pictures(below)were taken a month back
At a triangular road-divide in front of Beden Powell school. Changing colour, to red from green, within a couple of weeks.

On sentry duty outside the Institute of Oriental Studies is this gulmohar, photoed over the last two weeks.

I have no excuse for the mismatch in placement of photos and captions other than saying I did my best.

The only world we've ever known

2008-04-22T20:15:00.002+05:30

Today is Earth day.
Its not a day we celebrate. On the other hand, it is a day to think about our planet.
It is not a one day affair. It is a day we need to decide about our attitude towards our planet.
Watch this video to get a real perspective on the only world we have ever known.

Involving school kids in grow-with-trees drive

2008-04-21T10:40:00.002+05:30

We have it from Anil Kumar that principal of a neighbourhood school, Anantha Geetha Vidyalaya, has helped Sapgreen water the 100 odd saplings they planted in a public park at Vijayanagara II on Ugadi day (April 7). The gesture of the school principal is noteworthy (what's princie's name, Anil,could you blog about him?), considering that some residents close to the park haven't been all that enthusiastic. Those who initially offered to take care of the plants appear to have lost interest; and one of them is said to have plainly refused, saying that Sapgreen, as a business venture, should pay for water.

The argument makes business sense, if we don't consider that there is public benefit in the business Anil and Ashwin pursue. And I would like to think that public-spirited individuals and groups have a vested interest in promoting the green business venture. FORT-Mysore have an enlightened self-interest in endorsing Sapgreen.

Anantha Geetha Vidyalaya has an enlightened school-head, with whom Sapgreen should work, to promote tree-planting culture among our school children. Every child that starts his/her schooling at A G Vidyalaya - from LKG or Std. I - should be encouraged by the school authorities to plant a sapling, so that children can see themselves growing with their trees. They could plant the saplings on the school premises or at their own backyards.Parents-teachers association could be involved in spreading the message. Ashwin and Anil would do well to request the principal to arrange class-room meetings with students, so that they can share their experience in tree-planting.

I know our senior colleague and tree-lover, Mr Krishna Vattam, has a standing invite to visit Anantha Geetha Vidyalaya. In the interest of the tree world Mr Vattam should accept this and also the many invitations he gets from other institutions, if only to push the grow-with-your-trees agenda among school children.

Welcome back to the trees, Anil

2008-04-20T07:39:00.002+05:30

What have computers got to do with growing trees ? I couldn't see the connection till I read Anil's post - Am still away from trees. Anil Kumar is the marketing man in Sapgreen. With his company co-founder, Ashwin, the guys at this green-delivery start-up have evolved a business model for getting people to plant trees on public spaces. And no business venture nowadays can do without Internet communication - official website, online marketing, blogs vagaira....vagaira.
Snag is the Internet can be highly temperamental. Like an obstinate brat your computer would sulk in silence, and wouldn't give a clue as to how you can get the blessed thing listening to your key-board. And the 'witch-doctor' who can straighten out the system - software consultant - costs a packet. Sapgreen faced such a situation with its official website.
After months of googling, PHP codes, forms,secure form,testing (last few days have been hectic and I did develop few symptoms RSI...) we finished the site. And today I'm proud;we saved lot of money, thanks to Ravi, K* and K's sister Sapgreen is finally up and running.... More in his blog...