Sarjapur residents pitch in to give a new lease of life to trees

Three trees marked to be felled for widening of Dommasandra-Attibele Road will now be transplanted, thanks to the efforts of Sarjapur Residents’ Welfare Association, which has raised money through crowd-funding to save them.

“A tree was felled near Sarjapur bus stop nearly two months ago. We later learnt that more than 200 trees will meet the same fate for widening of Dommasandra-Attibele Road. We then urged the PWD and the Forest department officials to transplant them. But they said that would cost them dear and declined our request,” said Sarjapur RWA’s environment secretary Raicy Mathew.

"We then decided to call B Ilango, who brought hundreds of trees that were uprooted by cyclone in Chennai to life and Vijay Nishanth, known as the tree doctor. Both said three trees in Sarjapur and Yamare could be saved," Mathew added.

RWA president Jagadish Kottur Shettar said the process will be expensive. “A crane is needed to shift the trees and river sand is required to plant them in their new home. We also need to hire a tractor.

We estimate the cost to reach Rs 3 lakh and decided to raise money through crowd-funding.”

"We published a request on an online platform and received good response. We have already collected Rs 2.5 lakh in donations. Deputy Conservator of Forests Deepika Bajpayee has offered to help us. We have identified the new spot and are planning to shift them next week,” Mathew added.

Shettar demanded that the government  allocate funds for tree transplantation, since many projects were taking a toll on the environment. “As many as 83 trees will be cut to widen Sarjapur-Attibele Road. According to arborists, at least 38 of these trees can be transplanted. The government should evince interest to transplant them,” he said.

Vijay Nishant, urban conservationist, said the citizens’ initiative to save the environment should open the government's eyes.
DH News Service