With the ban on one-time use plastics coming into effect on January 1, customers bring vessels to buy food in Salem on Monday. | Photo Credit: E. LakshmiNarayanan
Avoid plastic carry bags, deliver food at the doorsteps of customers
Ban on plastic bags has forced many food business operators in the city to carry food items in stainless steel containers and deliver it at the doorsteps of customers.
Small shops selling variety rice, gravies and other food items are present in large numbers in the city, particularly in Guhai. Food items are packed in disposable carry bags and sold to customers.
However, after the plastic ban from January 1, Corporation Officials intensified raids against use of banned plastics. Catering service units could not find alternative or cost effective material for packing.
Though customers were asked to bring their own containers, only a few turned up.
Hence, in order to keep the business going, many caterers started delivering food at the doorsteps of customers.
Business hit
S. Malligeswaran, a caterer in Guhai, said that after the plastic ban he had lost 70% of his business as customers wanted food delivered in plastic bags. We have been educating the customers for over a month asking them to bring containers. Since many are labourers, the result was discouraging.
Now he uses a delivery van and reaches out to the customers.
His wife, M. Kalaiarasi, goes to the houses of customers to deliver food.
Between 11.30 a.m. and 3 p.m., she delivers food in localities near Tiruchi Road, and Dadagapatti Main Road. The couple said that to keep the business running it was bearing the additional cost of operating the van and was positive that people would co-operate in making the society plastic-free.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Salem – January 08th, 2019
Prasiddhi Singh is a class 1 student of Mahindra World School
Chennai :
Prasiddhi Singh is unlike other five-year-olds. She has successfully raised Rs 41, 254 on Ketto, a crowdfunding platform for her mission to ‘save flora, fauna and the planet we live in’. The class 1 student from Mahindra World School is an inspiration to people of all ages. Talking to us about how environment-based issues piqued her interest at such a young age, Stuti Singh, Prasiddhi’s mother says, “My husband and I have always been inclined towards fitness, and we introduced Prasiddhi to jogging when she was two years old.
As a family, We participated in a Ridley Run event — for ‘Save the turtles campaign’ in 2015. She was the youngest participant in that event.” Since then, Prasiddhi has been actively taking part in several events, including tree plantation drives, beach cleaning, that promote environmental awareness. “Eventually, she started understanding the impact of pollution and wanted to do her bit to save the planet. We understood her interest in such activities and decided to give her the needed exposure,” shares Stuti.
The cause-driven child has also spent a considerable amount of time being mentored by Hafiz from CommuniTree. “Recently, Mahindra World City, where we live, conducted a ‘one lakh tree plantation drive’ and Prasiddhi used to ask her father almost every day to take her to the field to plant. That’s when we connected with Hafiz. She spent a lot of time with him understanding the way plants grow, how fences save plants from external damages, and why planting is instrumental in keeping the environment thriving,” she says.
After being part of the tree plantation drive, Prasiddhi discussed the possibility of planting another one lakh saplings in the area, with Hafiz, Praveen (her father) and Stuti. “She was determined and had her goal set. But, the scale of the project was quite overwhelming and that’s when Hafiz suggested that we plan it in multiple phases. We started exploring different crowdfunding options and chose Ketto. This is the first phase of a bigger project,” she explains.
Prasiddhi plans to harvest a micro fruit farm to feed the depleting bird population in the city and spread the message on the importance of trees. The idea for such a farm popped when Prasiddhi came across her father’s childhood anecdotes — about climbing trees, eating and enjoying fruits with his friends. “These tales resulted in fruit tree plantations, but her willingness to share it with other kids, especially the underprivileged, made us take this project to government schools to ensure that every child can enjoy the fruit forests,” says Stuti.
Prasiddhi wants to create her own ‘Kids Army’ — where she will plant trees in all the schools and create students club to maintain the trees. “I will monitor those fruit forests regularly,” she says. Prasiddhi’s observation about the depleting bird population comes from quite a startling incident. Narrating the incident, she says, “Sometime back, during a drive with my parents, a few butterflies dotted the windscreen.
I asked my parents, ‘Why do these butterflies come in our way?’ for which they answered, ‘We are coming in the way of birds and butterflies as we have cut a lot of forests and trees. They have lost their habitats.’ I was shocked. Since then, I have been keeping water for birds in my gallery. I want to take baby steps to make a difference.” Prasiddhi’s day starts in the wee hours, with a morning jog along with her father, followed by a gardening session and mantra chanting. She heads to school by 7.30 am, followed by playschool till 7 pm.
“She completes her school work there so that she can spend some quality time with us once she is back. At home, we play indoor/outdoor games and talk about the entire day’s activities. We have dinner together, read some bedtime stories and sleep by 9.30 pm. Our daughter inspires us and we are proud of her,” says Stuti.
Kids army
Prasiddhi Singh plans to harvest a micro fruit farm to feed the depleting bird population in the city and spread the message on the importance of trees. She wants to create her own ‘Kids Army’ — where she will plant trees in all the schools and create students club to maintain the trees. “I will monitor those fruit forests on a regular basis,” says Prasiddhi. She recently initiated the fruit tree planting in a children’s home in Puducherry. “This month, we will also plant in one of the government schools in Kancheepuram,” says Stuti Singh.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Roshne Balasubramanian / Express News Service / January 03rd, 2019
The design was inspired from a South Korean interior designer, Ha Young Lee, who designed a sturdy desk made out of cardboard for underprivileged kids in his country.
Chennai :
IIT-Madras students have designed study desks using discarded cardboard boxes, for underprivileged students, in some of the government schools. Under the REACH (Reuse cardboard to help children) initiative as part of Shaastra, IIT-M’s annual technical fest that starts from January 3, students have created a supply chain network to collect hundreds of used cardboard cartons from shopping malls, electronic shops, retailers and other places.
The material was then sorted, based on size, shape, and thickness, and then shaped by cutting the sorted boxes into pieces such that they can be assembled easily by anyone with minimal instructions.
The design was inspired from a South Korean interior designer, Ha Young Lee, who designed a sturdy desk made out of cardboard for underprivileged kids in his country. “After a month of trial and testing, we came up with a prototype which was tested by distributing in schools which are devoid of these facilities and infrastructure.
We collaborated with one NGO named ‘BHUMI’, which helped us to get volunteers for making the desks and TFI (Teach For India) which helped us to reach out to schools which didn’t have desks. We have currently reached out to 200 students in 5 schools with each child getting access to these desks,” Shaastra team said in a release. In India, according to a survey, there are 20 million students in the age group of 6-14, who lack basic facilities.
source:http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service / December 28th, 2018
In its endeavour to go green and reduce dependence on conventional energy, the Southern Railway has turned seven coaches of the Coimbatore – Mayiladuthurai – Coimbatore Jan Shatabdi Express solar powered.
The provision of solar rooftop photovoltaic panels on the coaches was entrusted to the Salem Division.
As a trial, one coach was provided with solar PV panels and commissioned in January 2017. Now, six more non-AC coaches in the train have have been provided with the panels at ₹15.20 lakh, providing 4.8 kw per coach. Railway officials said the solar panels functioned well, powering the lights and fans in the coaches.
In case solar energy was not generated, the system would switch to conventional energy.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by Special Correspondent / Coimbatore – December 29th, 2018
Paterson Energy looks to set up a project in Pallikaranai, tap CSR funds
Chennai-based start-up Paterson Energy is looking to set up a 5 tonne-per-day plastic waste-to-fuel project in Pallikaranai and hoping to tap corporate social responsibility funds for the project.
The company uses a technology called plastic pyrolysis and builds plants at locations where it can process plastic waste to produce liquid fuel, which is cheaper than diesel.
This can be used as an alternative to fuel generators, industrial boilers, kilns, furnaces, diesel-powered engines and other such equipment.
It claims that there will be over 20% savings on fuel bills.
Cheaper than diesel
The oil generated as a result of these processes is sold at ₹40/litre on average. The model can generate 500 litres of oil for each tonne of plastic waste. However, the yield depends on the feedstock – the more homogeneous the material, the better the yield output.
“We can also source single-use plastic, which is not normally picked up by ragpickers, for conversion into fuel. But the challenge is we need huge volumes,” Vidya Amarnath, Director, Paterson Energy, said.
“If the State government can bring in regulations on collection of such plastic waste through various collection centres, it would be of great help for us to source,” she added.
She said that the company is working with the Tamil Nadu government in setting up plastic waste-to-fuel plants at feasible locations.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Tamil Nadu / by Sanjay Vijayakumar / Chennai – December 22nd, 2018
In general, plants of ornamental value are grown in gardens just to increase the aesthetic features of landscapes.
Mussaenda frondosa
Chennai :
In general, plants of ornamental value are grown in gardens just to increase the aesthetic features of landscapes. The ornamental features of the plants may not necessarily be flowers but could also be bright coloured foliage, curiously looking fruits, unusual forms and textures of barks. In all the above cases, the prime intention of the garden planner is to provide eye-pleasing designs to visitors.
In order to enhance the aesthetic values of the gardens/landscapes, our Indian horticulturists import numerous exotic species. However, the flip side to importing exotic species, often, is the sidelining of native, productive landscapes. Apparently, farmers in our country are spending lots money and energy in combating the spread of these invasive ‘imported beauties’. Therefore, it is inevitable for us to learn about the plant species that grow naturally and enhance natural landscapes.
This type of native ornamental plants are known as ‘wild beauties’. This is the right time for nature lovers to turn their attention towards familiarising and propagating our native plants. Interestingly, in addition, our native plants are useful as medicines, food and drinks, and some species are reported to positively alter human attitudes, behaviours and psychological responses.
Mussaenda frondosa L., which belongs to Rubiaceae is one such wild beauty that can be spotted even at a distance because of its shiny, large, leaf-like floral parts. The vernacular names Bellila (Kannada); Vellila (Malayalam); Velli Madandai and popular names in English, Flag Bush, White Lady reveal the beauty of this ornamental shrub. In Sanskrit, this is known as Shruvati.
This wild beauty also has several medicinal uses. Leaves and flowers are crushed and applied externally in case of wounds. The shiny leaf-like bracts is boiled in water, and the liquid is then used to cleanse hair. It is also used to treat jaundice. The juice of the plant is used to treat eye infections. In addition, the common plant’s — found to grow in moist deciduous to evergreen forests of Western Ghats — decoction of leaves are administered orally to get rid of intestinal worms.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Lifestyle> Health / by Ganesh Babu NM / Express News Service / November 21st, 2018
Gone are those days, when elders in the family, treated their child’s illness with vegetables.
Chennai :
Gone are those days, when elders in the family, treated their child’s illness with vegetables. It is believed that the disconnection from the traditional food culture has made the present generation unaware of the nutritional values in the native vegetables. Therefore, alternative medical practitioners through their campaigns at workshops and symposia on the native food system are attempting to bring awareness among people on the possibilities of curing several ailments just by putting them on a diet of native raw vegetables.
“From a vegetable vendor, you demand a ‘fresh’ bunch of mint or coriander leaves. But, is it not an irony that what you buy fresh is dead after you cook? While cooking is nothing but an act of ‘killing’ the nutrients of a vegetable, why should you prefer it to be bought fresh?” asks BK Arunprakaash, a vegetable consultant, who runs Yogeshwar Vegetable Clinic in Coimbatore.
Photo: U Rakesh Kumar
Arun, who treats diseases by prescribing appropriate diet patterns to his clients, points out that consuming raw vegetables provides a cure to several ailments. He displays a list of 12 different vegetables and the method of having each of them.“The banana, coconut and lemon, which we offer to the deities, are capable of bringing a change in a person’s behaviour.
I would say that our native vegetables have something more than nutrition. I have examined the impacts on a patient after making him consume raw native vegetables as brinjal and drumstick and the foreign ones like cauliflower and carrot. Then, I discovered that the former’s effect on the person was greater than that of the latter,” says Arun.
Citing a case study, he says, “A boy, who had been using offensive words in his language, gradually turned out to be polite after having raw snake gourd regularly.”Sixty-year-old Manivannan, a retired professor, and one of the clients of Arunprakaash says, “I was suffering from acute back and joint ache and I took certain allopathic medicines prescribed by doctors. However, they had only temporary effects on the disease. Later, when I consulted Arunprakaash at his clinic, he suggested that I have raw copra and vaazhaikaai (plantain) regularly. I followed the diet strictly, and now I am totally relieved of back and joint pains.”
Reminding the origin of the expression ‘Goodbye ‘as ‘God be with you’, a greeting of concern when a person takes leave of the other, Arun says, “In our society, many hardly know what is behind the custom of presenting a lemon to a person at the point when he sets out for a journey. During his travel, he may experience an unexpected physical hazard. At that point, let him have a full lemon with its peel. It saves his precious life. This is the truth behind the presenting of lemon.”
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by B. Meenakshi Sundaram / Express News Service / November 16th, 2018
Toda men walking to their village in Udhagamandalam | Photo Credit: K. K. Mustafah
Traditional knowledge is not just about medicinal plants, it is also about ecology too
Reminiscing about the past brings no faraway look in 60-year-old Nanjan Ginbantan’s eyes. The Irula tribesman’s face is animated as he recounts the vast colonies of vultures he would see even 40 years ago. “If you clapped your hands, hundreds would rise into the sky from these trees,” he says.
It was a common sight near his village, Anaikatty, which borders the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve near Masinagudi in Tamil Nadu. “Forty years ago, there were at least 500 to 1,000 vultures here. Three months ago, which was when I last sighted some, there were just 20 circling in the sky.”
“What do you think caused the decline?” asks Chandrasekar S., a naturalist studying vultures, as his colleague Rangaswamy M. video-records the conversation.
Vulture nesting sites, says Ginbantan, have decreased drastically. “For example, the 6-10 nests we always saw in Siriyur village till 2014 are no longer there.”
Ginbantan has other interesting insights into vulture behaviour. It’s not vultures, but crows that find carcasses first, he says; vultures note the aggregation of crows and then fly down to the dead animal.
Interestingly, researchers in Kenya discovered a similar system of ‘information scrounging’ by Gyps vultures (species of the same genus are seen near Ginbantan’s village too) four years ago, where vultures locate carcasses by borrowing information from scavenging eagles.
Muddy boots
Ginbantan’s intimate knowledge about the vultures of Masinagudi, passed down over generations or gathered from experience, is what Chandrasekar and his team are mining as part of the Sanctuary Nature Foundation’s Mud on Boots project that is trying to understand the decline of vulture population in the Nilgiris.
Irula shepherd Nanjan Ginbantan talks about vultures | Photo Credit: M. Sathyamoorthy
This is one of several such projects across India where researchers are documenting traditional environmental knowledge held by indigenous communities in order to use it to conserve ecosystems and species.
The stereotype that traditional knowledge is only about medicinal plants and alternative healing is being challenged now. Scientists have begun to recognise that it also includes ecological and eco-geographical knowledge. It was this wealth, for instance, that the British tapped into to identify new places and cultures, plants and animals as they colonised the country.
First accounts
In the late 19th century, Muduvans and Kadars (indigenous communities of the forested areas of the southern Western Ghats) served as guides to the British who surveyed the Anamalai Mountains to identify the best valleys and hillslopes for tea and coffee plantations. Botanists and zoologists likewise sourced information from local communities for some of the first accounts of India’s flora and fauna.
Today, new species are still being identified like this: the only tree crab of the Western Ghats (Kani maranjandu), officially described just last year, was already known to the Kanis of southern Keralaand is named after them.
Traditional ecological knowledge often includes culturally-transmitted beliefs, even encompassing the relationship of living beings (including humans) with one another and with their environment. For example, assessing the traditional knowledge of 40 fishing communities along the east coast of Tamil Nadu, scientists of the Botanical Survey of India and other institutes found that the communities have a complex classification of diverse sea grasses, which takes into account their role in the marine ecosystem. Many seafaring and tribal communities also do not harvest resources from specific areas designated sacred, which helps preserve biodiversity.
Some communities have also used this knowledge to ‘manage’ biodiversity. In Arunachal Pradesh, scientists who documented the traditional soil knowledge of the Adi community found that the tribes could identify nine different types of soil, based on texture, colour and location. Adi farmers use this knowledge to manage soil erosion and fertility in diverse ways — such as using logs to prevent soil erosion or cultivating certain crops only in specific locations. Yet, the cultivation system of the Adis, shifting or jhum cultivation, is only viewed as ‘unsustainable’ because it involves clearing forests.
The Todas of the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu also used to manage high-elevation shola-grasslands, where they live. They would protect the sholas, small patches of evergreen woods, and burn nearby grasslands to foster fresh growth for their Toda buffaloes, a strategy that stopped after the shola-grasslands were afforded official protection. Recent interviews with Todas reveal that despite the conversion of surrounding lands into plantations (of exotic pine and acacia) and farms, the Todas still hold on to some of their traditional socio-ecological knowledge. Their preference for a shola-cum-grassland landscape continues.
“Grasses give wetness to the earth,” says Pol Kwair, 71, a Toda tribesman who lives near Glenmorgan. “And the native trees give us this water back through streams. Exotics don’t,” he tells Chandrasekar.
Toda tribesman Pol Kwair displays native plants | Photo Credit: M. Sathyamoorthy
Indigenous wisdom is also strict about adhering to sustainable harvests and resource use. In Kerala, for example, the Malasar tribe of Parambikulam Tiger Reserve follows an interesting custom during wild tuber harvesting. The tubers are harvested from only one hill in any given year, says Mahali Thangavelu, a Malasar tribesman from Sungam Colony in Parambikulam. “The harvested plants would be re-harvested. The next year, the tubers on another hill would be harvested,” he says.
However, no one remembers these traditions now because they no longer depend on wild tubers, says Thangavelu. Kwair echoes a similar concern. “We know where to find different types of grasses and shola trees, and their specific uses,” he says. “But the younger generation is not interested. Modernisation has changed the need to learn.”
So much lost
So how much of such knowledge is being lost? A recent analysis of 92 studies on indigenous knowledge systems from around the world showed that 77% of them reported a loss of wisdom, driven chiefly by globalisation, modernisation and market integration. A recent review of 92 studies on local and indigenous ecological knowledge from across the world reports a loss of wisdom driven chiefly by globalisation, modernisation and market integration.
Moreover, most traditional knowledge is passed down by word of mouth, including via songs and stories. In 2012, scientists examined the co-occurrence of linguistic and biological diversity in areas with high plant and animal species diversity. They found that the extremely biodiverse areas of the world, including the Western Ghats and north-eastern India, account for 70% of all languages on earth: languages that are unique, often endemic, and facing extinction. Preserving linguistic diversity is crucial for preserving biological diversity — when languages go extinct, so does ecological knowledge.
Dynamic tradition
But seeing this only as ‘lost knowledge’ downplays the ‘dynamic’ nature of it, say recent studies. For instance, the invasion of lantana is a fairly recent phenomenon in the Biligirirangaswamy Hills Wildlife Sanctuary in southern Karnataka. But scholars at Bengaluru’s Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment learnt from the Soliga tribals’ observations that it was the forest department’s ban on the use of fire, after the area was declared protected, which encouraged the growth of lantana and other dense vegetation.
“My interactions have taught me that ‘tradition’ is a dynamic process, evolving and adapting to requirements, changing times and ways of thinking and relevance,” says Manish Chandi, senior researcher, Andaman and Nicobar Environment Team, who has studied indigenous communities in the southern Western Ghats and presently studies the Nicobar islanders.
Traditional knowledge indeed calibrates itself to changing ecosystem, says Anita Varghese, deputy director, Keystone Foundation, which has been working with tribal communities around the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. One of their biggest successes has been in marketing honey collected by the tribes. The community is able to predict the volume, maturity and seasonality of honey, all of which contribute to sustainable ways of collection, says Varghese. “They have thumb rules for all these.”
Keystone has initiated a village elder programme in the hamlets of this area, where elders are encouraged to go for walks in the forest with children so that knowledge can be passed on.
Beyond inventory
For scientists, this information can be invaluable — from managing protected areas to conservation education, development planning, and environmental assessment. The Convention on Biological Diversity that India ratified in 2012 also recognises this, requiring nations to “respect, preserve, maintain and promote traditional knowledge” with the consent of indigenous communities.
Yet those working in this field often stop with just documentation. Inventories are a good beginning, but how we go beyond that is crucial, says Aarthi Sridhar, founder trustee of Dakshin Foundation.
“Seamlessly integrating traditional knowledge with science presents interesting challenges. For fishers, the kadal matha [sea goddess] might signify an explicitly cultural space and entity. Whereas for fishing science it can only be translated as the ecological system. What is the place of gods in understanding the sea scientifically? Or has this deliberately been lost in its translation?” asks Sridhar.
If we are a bit more accommodating, traditional knowledge can have a lot more relevance by accounting for various factors that are at play in the environment, says Chandi. “This is where science, or the art of science, can become important.”
Chroniclers such as Chandrasekar and his team say that their conversations have completely changed their perceptions about not just vultures but the landscape as well.
“White-rumped vultures usually nest on Arjuna [Terminalia arjuna, a deciduous species] trees,” says Chandrasekar. “Some Irula tribesfolk tell us that numerous Arjuna trees died in a drought last year. So have numbers of the vulture been affected too? Could exotic weeds that have spread dramatically over the past decades have a role to play? There are now so many more questions to ask and so much more to learn.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech> Environment / by Aathira Perinchery / November 10th, 2018
With the mid-day sun shining on her terrace, Anju Agarwal tends to more than 50 plants in her terrace garden, which includes varieties of spinach, tomatoes, carrots and beetroot.
Anju Agarwal has three terrace gardens in her house with over 50 plants Debadatta Mallick
Chennai :
With the mid-day sun shining on her terrace, Anju Agarwal tends to more than 50 plants in her terrace garden, which includes varieties of spinach, tomatoes, carrots and beetroot. Her house in Choolaimedu has three terrace gardens, each with a variety of fruit, vegetables and herbs.
“There isn’t a particular order to all the plants here. Other people usually have set rows and area. My plants are always interspersed, and I never know what I’m going to get from them. It’s always a surprise,” says Anju.
Her love for organic gardening began when she was 10 years old and living in her childhood home in Juhu, Mumbai. “We had a huge bungalow, and we maintained a kitchen garden then. Ever since then, my father never used urea or any other chemical. We used cow dung and bone meal. Our bottle gourds would be a foot or a foot-and-a-half long!” says the 52-year-old. After her marriage in 1993, she moved to Chennai, at a time when it was difficult for her to find the right tools to start her organic kitchen garden.
In 2007, her parents-in-law fell ill and needed her constant attention. “At that time, I was stressed. I turned to gardening as it was the only thing I knew, and it became a source of joy for me,” she says. She then attended a meeting for gardening enthusiasts and she made two friends with whom she set up The Organic Garden Foundation, which holds conventions on organic farming and produce, all over the city. Now, Anju sells organic soaps made using the produce from her garden.
“A lot of people look at what their plant needs, not what the soil needs. The soil has to be healthy. I recommend people concentrate on soil. Once a plant’s cycle is over, I take out the soil, wash the container, leave the soil out in the sun for ten days, and add nutrients to it,” she says. She also recommends rotating vegetables, as different plants require different nutrients, which are depleted from the soil and needs to be replenished. For example, after growing a vegetable like okra, she grows spinach as it restores nitrogen in the soil.
Anju spends time testing and trying out the current trends in organic farming that she finds on the internet, and noting down the results in a diary. She is currently trying organic hydroponics and a composting method by Dr Krishna Jargan.
Her container farm also grows Barbados cherries, figs and pomegranate. She also grows turmeric and chillies, which she dries and powders to use in her kitchen. Her husband Sanjay, who she says is a huge supporter of her passion, often checks the garden in the morning and evening. Surrounded by spring onions, cabbages, cauliflowers, papaya, bananas, guava, lemons and sweet potatoes, she uses a drip-feeding system that Sanjay installed to ensure her plants are taken care of.
For details, call Anju on 9941010441 or check her FB page, Anju’s Garden.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Rochana Mohan / Express News Service / November 14th, 2018
Vijayabhaskaran is another example to prove that not all heroes wear capes.
Vijayabhaskaran outside his tailor shop at Alwarpet | DEBADATTA MALLICK
Chennai :
Vijayabhaskaran is another example to prove that not all heroes wear capes. The 67-year-old tree warden — a public official in charge of shade trees on public town lands — has planted close to 150 saplings in and around Alwarpet to try and restore the green cover the area lost after the fury of Cyclone Vardah. The numbers may not be staggering but when you take into account the limited space in a congested city like Chennai, it would indicate his conviction and determination.
While he is used to putting his hands to good use — he is a tailor when he is not planting saplings in and around Chennai — he has gone over and above his calling to replenish the greenery. Though an officer of the State forest department (appointed two decades ago), he spends money out of his pocket to protect the environment.
“Every month I set aside Rs 3,000-Rs 5,000 to buy new saplings of rare trees that we do not find in the city anymore. Whenever I spot an empty space either on a sidewalk or near a house I make a mental note to plant a sapling there the next day,” he informs TNIE. Over the last 20 years, he has planted more than 10,000 saplings in parts of South Chennai. An average of 500 trees per year may not count for much but considering the hurdles he has to jump (lack of finances and no support from the local body), his contribution can’t be measured in numbers.
He doesn’t stop there. His pet projects include planting fruit-bearing tree saplings in neighbouring villages like Palur in Kancheepuram. “Last year, I took close to 50 students from Anna University to Palur. We planted 100 saplings in four hours. The saplings I planted 10 years ago now give the villagers a variety of fruits like mango, guava and coconut,” he beams.
His best work gently sways to the tunes of winds all over the city. Through an environmental NGO, Exnora’s tree-planting division, he has planted 350 tree saplings in 13 bus terminals across the city, at two temple tanks in Mylapore, close to 1,000 saplings in multiple city colleges, parks and along numerous footpaths at Kottupuram, Teynampet, Boat Club, RA Puram and neighbouring localities.
While he has planted more than 25 varieties of trees, he takes special care to plant native species like Poovarasu, Badam, Maghizham and Vembu, which are known for their resistance to natural calamities. He has also roped in students from NSS wings of many colleges in the city to assist him in the planting process. The next time you come across a rare or exotic tree in the city, you can thank Vijayabhaskaran, the unassuming senior citizen who plants and safeguards trees for a living.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Madhumitha Viswanath / Express News Service / November 09th, 2018
