City corporation, which planted over 30,000 saplings last year, has no such plan for this monsoon, says 'The Hindu', quoting commissioner A B Ibrahim. And, on the other hand, we are losing green cover to make way for road widening and laying concrete footpath. In the absence of a tree-plantation proposal coming from the local body the state forest department couldn't be expected to get into the act.
The question is: how are we placed in such scenario ? The NGOs, the rotary and lions clubs, the NSS, traders associations, corporate houses, banks, neibourhood residents associations, and indeed everyone of us as residents have a stake. We ought to think in terms of planting saplings on available open space in our own backyards, instead of relying on the benevolence of the city corporation. The forest department can be persuaded to supply saplings if our NGOs and clubs take responsibility for mobilising public support to plant saplings and take care of their upkeep. After all, we all have an enlightened self-interest in the greening of Mysore.
NIT, Surathkal, has a tradition in which every student in the institute is persuaded to plant a tree on the campus. Today's students can be seen studying in the shade of trees planted by their seniors years ago, says M Raghuram, in 'The Hindu' (May 27, 2005). He gives a few guidelines for similar tree plantation in educational institutions elsewhere.
School managements would do well to consult botonists and forest department officials on the choice of species. For instance, mayflower, suited for Bangalore, would not grow on coastal Mangalore. One reason for the generally low survival rate of saplings planted under 'vanamahotsava' programme is that organisers choose exotic species without considering whether they would grow in a specific region.
With moonsoon round the corner and schools reopening after the summer break, this is the conducive time for including the greening of surroundings on the agenda of schools, suggests Raghuram.
The staff of Mysore-based Software Paradigms India (SPI), led by its MD, Mr K K Mookerji, is reported to have planted 150 saplings on their new campus at Hebbal Industrial Area (HIA). The occasion was SPI - Marathon 2005, at which the employees , mostly desk-bound software professionals, did the 6.2 km run from the SPI Contour Road facility to HIA. Hopefully, the staff sapling plantation would be an annual feature that would, over the years, spill-over from the campus to open spaces around SPI in HIA.
The staff-marathon, organised by the SPI Recreation Club, is geared to spread the message, stressing the need for physical fitness for software professionals, who spend their working lives facing a temperamental PC in closed air-conditioned confines. Their only workout during long working hours is the walks they take from work-station to the nearest water-cooler or coffee dispenser. According to a report in 'The Mysore Mail', the SPI staff has taken an oath to quit smoking. Which cuts out the smokers' workout by way of their frequent trips to the parking lot or the tuck-shop across the street for a quick one.
