Adopt more than a tree

Adopt more than a tree

The Tree for All campaign is hoping that Bangalore and its environs will be greener and cleaner when you adopt a sapling as well as its surrounding village, finds BHUMIKA K.

The Hindu

TREE OF LIFE Planting a little sapling may be an individual effort. But put together, it may change the face of the city

A large tank off Kanakpura Road, around 20 km from Bangalore, looks a promising sight with water gently lapping around its brim and greenery all around. Tucked away from the main road, one can hardly imagine that the Waderhalli Kere is cradling a new experiment in tree adoption. Over 700 saplings planted around this lake draw life from it and hold out some hope for Bangalore's ecological future.

It's a small gesture. But perhaps one that will show results and will be remembered in the long run.

Over 3,000 saplings have been planted through the Tree for All campaign at various sites around Bangalore — a plan being evolved by the Alt Tech Foundation to create new green spaces around the city, with a hope to sensitise urban people to the environment.

Alt Tech was started by Biodiversity Conservation India Pvt. Ltd as a not-for-profit organisation to guide people on simple user-friendly systems to harness water and energy.

"We have already started planting saplings in four villages around South Bangalore and in Ramanagara on panchayat and forest department land. We have an understanding with them that these trees will not be cut for 50 years," says Shobha Devi, manager of Alt Tech's campaign. But why plant saplings outside the city when its need is most felt within the concrete jungle? "There's no point in planting the saplings within the city because you don't know when they will cut it down. We want to play it safe and not do planting in revenue areas, but only on forest and panchayat lands and lakeshores where building construction is not allowed," she says.

It hasn't been easy though. Elders in villages where they have acquired land are suspicious of such efforts; the younger lot is more willing and enthusiastic. "It's difficult to get the villagers to tune in to the idea. Initially people even took off the bio-fence we had put around the saplings to use as firewood. But after we spoke to them, they are willing with the idea," says Asha, an environmentalist with Alt Tech.

Samanth (name changed), a 31-year-old technical writer has sponsored five trees, naming each after a member of his family. He says he loves trees and enjoys being in the surroundings of forestland.

He agrees his is a minuscule effort in saving the environment. But he feels that if such efforts are encouraged, more people will come forward to do their bit. "Water table levels in the colony we live in have been falling. And trees help in harvesting rainwater." So along with friends from a local club, they have adopted around 65 trees through Tree for All.

Everyone seems to have their own reason for adopting a tree. Nirmala, a 30-year-old documentary filmmaker, recently lost her father and has dedicated two trees to him. She believes that this might negate the ill effects on the environment that her dad, a smoker, might have created.

HR professional Shilpa Kumbera says: "I wanted to do my bit for the environment. I've lived in Bangalore for 20 years and have seen what's happened to the city. I know that from my part it's just one tree that's added, but collectively, it will do some good."

The campaign is really for those who want to do something for the environment, but don't have the time, says Shobha. Then you or your company can adopt a tree or dedicate a tree to someone for Rs. 350 for four years. Alt Tech ensures multi-cropping and plants varieties such as jamun, mahogany, neem and pongamia. The money is used by the organisation to pay for the sapling, labourers to water the plants till a stage that they can sustain on their own, and for watchmen. Part of the money is also ploughed into small projects for the village that provides the organisation with land.

In a small settlement of mostly daily-wage workers in Rajiv Gandhi Nagar in Agara (Kengeri Hobli), around 20 km from Bangalore, each of the small homes has a sapling in the front yard. Including the saplings planted around the settlement, nearly 300 have been planted now. Residents have been given the responsibility to care for them. Children have shown great enthusiasm in this exercise. In turn, the organisation is training residents to grow mushrooms in their yards and market them to HOPCOMS. They are also being trained to manage the garbage of their entire settlement.

Kubendra, who lives in the area and has volunteered in the initiative, says it's difficult to get people to collect and segregate garbage. But soon they plan to sell the plastic waste and generate some money for the settlement. Even the 44 children studying at the government primary school in the area are being taught about waste management and have been provided a dustbin.

Most of the donors are sent pictures and updates about "their" tree by mail. Some visit the site to see for themselves. In some villages the money from the tree planting has been used to set up libraries in schools or provide biostoves for the women.