'He who plants a tree. Plants a hope' says a wise-old proverb..!
But does the responsibility of Planting, Maintaining and Saving a tree vests only with an environmentalist..?
Well, this is a common misconception among the people who are yet to understand that, when it rains it rains everywhere. So, all us are the beneficiaries and just not the environmentalists. Despite facing the toughest drought phase, it is sad that still a majority of the citizens continue to be lethargic on the importance of conserving trees for a better today and a great tomorrow.
In the name of expansion, Coimbatore has already lost several thousands of trees in less than a decade. A few years back, it was the Thudiyalur - Mettupalayam road stretch and the L&T bye pass road, recently it's the Pollachi- Coimbatore highways that stands barren without those irreplaceable age-old 'green golds'.
However, thanks to the Airport Authorities of Coimbatore who were thoughtful of apprising the forest department on re-transplanting six Neem trees from their premise for expansion purpose. The forest officials in turn passed on the message to the NGO Osai who immediately swung into action.
The representatives of the NGO, 'Osai' Syed, Gnanaguru, Senthil Kumar, Uma Shankar and Anthony meticulously planned to replace all the six neem trees to different sites allotted by the Airport authorities.
The tree transplanting event was flagged off by Vanitha Mohan, Managing Trustee of Siruthuli and Prathap Reddy, Airport Director in the presence of Secretary of 'RAAC', Raveendran, CGS Manion from Siruthuli and many NGOs, environmentalists and officials from the Airport Authorities.
On Monday, one of the six neem trees was successfully transplanted to a new location. And, today 2 more neem trees were transplanted to different locations inside the airport. The team shared that the remaining three trees will be transplanted by Friday. JCB's, Tractors, Rice sacks to keep the roots moist were used to transplant the trees.
Speaking on this, Osai Syed shared that, 'Organic manure, earthworm composite, coconut fiber, cowdung etc., has been used in the pit dug for transplanting the trees, this will ensure healthy and fast growth of the old trees in a new location. In the entire process, the roots have to be safeguarded, as a small damage to one of the root subsidiary could paralyze the growth of the tree. It's like our nervous system. Any small damage would paralyze the whole system sometimes even cause death'.
The people of this city owe a lot to the NGOs and environmentalist who are 24/7 working towards saving trees and creating awareness among the people. The credit of saving at least a handful of trees during the expansion process on the Pollachi Road will go to all these good-hearted NGOs.
Expansion is mandatory. But carelessly ignoring all viable options of re-transplanting the trees is highly condemnable. And, the worst part is when such impetuous act is done by the government bodies, it's nothing but a shame! It would take another 100 more years for a tree to grow to this size. Cutting trees after trees in the name of expansion and planting just a 0.0001% of trees, how unjust isn't it?
So, Let's join hands to protects the trees as they are our roots of existence..!