For A. Anthonyraj, happiness is keeping the city green.

Greening the city by planting trees is being taken up by several residents’ associations and activists, but securing saplings for the purpose comes at a cost.

Mr. Anthonyraj, a horticulturist and landscaper by profession, has been distributing tree saplings to residents’ welfare organisations and environmental activists for more than a year. He has given away more than 1,000 saplings free of cost to those volunteering to keep their localities or multi-storeyed apartments green.

He owns a horticulture farm at Thiruporur and said the inspiration was staring at him in the face: a concrete jungle.

“I decided to provide free saplings looking at the city losing its greenery gradually. I have also apportioned a small part of my profits for this venture.”

Mr. Anthonyraj has done landscaping projects in Qatar and Singapore and holds in high regard the rigorous procedure involved in cutting avenue trees even for development purposes in those nations.

He is concerned about the lack of adequate protection for avenue trees in India.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by R.Srikanth / Chennai – July 04th, 2015