Coimbatore : After more than 14 hours of struggle volunteers and officials who were involved in transplanting a 60-year-old Peepal tree from a private property in Ramanathapuram, successfully transplanted the tree near a temple in Kalapatti here.
Coimbatore : After more than 14 hours of struggle volunteers and officials who were involved in transplanting a 60-year-old Peepal tree from a private property in Ramanathapuram, successfully transplanted the tree near a temple in Kalapatti here.
The tree was on a property in Rukmani Nagar, which belongs to a Veenakumari, an NRI who wanted to build a house. Since two trees were right on the property and were obstructing construction, she wanted to transplant it somewhere else and called in K. Syed from Osai.
“As soon as we received the information, we took it to the notice of the Revenue and Highways Department who sent the necessary equipment and man power to start work,” said Syed.
He further added that the two trees were intertwined together making it a little difficult to uproot them. “However, since both the trees had grown together, it was important to not separate them and transplant them as they are,” he said.
The team later called earth movers who attempted to uproot the trees and once uprooted, the trees that were already pruned were placed on a truck to be carried to Kalapatti, a 13 kms away from their original site.
“We had to undergo a lot of struggle to get the trees out of the area since some there were many natural and artificial barriers. The branches of some trees on the way were too low and were obstructing. We had to wait for almost three hours to get the tree past the area without damaging any tree,” he said.
With departments including Revenue, Highways, Police, Tamil Nadu Electricity Board and Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation involving in the operation, the trees were given a green corridor in all signals by the City Police in order to help it reach the destination soon.
Lauding the convergence of interests and active participation from various government departments and public in the transplantation of a tree, Syed said that such activities would put Coimbatore in the forefront as a city leading with example in tree transplanting.
“Already we have been involved in tree transplanting in various cities around the country and States like Karnataka are seeking our help to transplant trees,” said Syed.
A team headed by Syed was involved in transplanting 500 trees on the Hubballi to Gadag Highway in Karnataka recently.
He had involved in more than 100 tree transplanting operations around the country and close to 60 in Coimbatore alone.
Once Transplanted, the trees would take 30 to 90 days to get rooted in the soil and is administered with earthworm fertiliser, dung, coconut coir waste, neem and mother soil to give it the necessary strength to grow.