Coimbatore: The 115th ‘Enviro Meet’ of Osai environmental organization was conducted at Sidhapudhur Corporation Higher Secondary School on Sunday.
Coimbatore: The 115th ‘Enviro Meet’ of the Osai environmental organization was conducted at Sidhapudhur Corporation Higher Secondary School on Sunday.
During the event, S Arulsekar, the founder of Aram Sei Foundation from Erode spoke on ‘How to plant trees successfully in urban areas.’ Arulsekar who is known to have planted nearly 12,000 trees in Erode in the last four years, claimed to have planted saplings in almost 80 per cent of the district with just the support of his family members and a group of labourers.
Addressing the gathering, Arulsekar said that a person must have enough patience and knowledge while getting into tree planting. “We have been often hearing stories of planting several lakh saplings on every special occasion by individuals or as an effort by NGOs. But not all of these saplings grow into trees. Improper maintenance and improper selection of saplings are basic reasons for their failure,” he said. Arulsekar advised people to be careful while selecting the places to plant sapling, be it in a housing area, reserved area, school, college, industrial area or near government buildings. He reiterated the importance of selecting the species of trees and keeping in mind the lifetime of the trees too, for better results.
Arulsekar added that the best way to sustain a tree is to protect it from major threats, which according to him are Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation, Highways Department, drainage, cattle and humans. Arulsekar explained that when he had initially thought of planting a lakh trees, he had come to understand that it was really a tough job both financially and also for maintenance of the trees. Hence, he reportedly stopped with 12,000 trees.
"The Erode City Municipal Corporation has been helping me since 2015 by supplying water. I spent nearly Rs.500 for each tree and I dream of providing shelter and food for several birds when my mission gets over. I am on a mission to serve society, and I will not receive any award until my mission is over," opined Arulsekar.
Speaking at the event, K Kalidasan, President of Osai strongly condemned the lack of tree-planting initiatives as well as the haphazard methods employed when saplings are planted. He yearned for a change and also shared the upcoming plans to be executed by his team for the well-being of nature and society as a whole.
As a part of the event, three books including ‘The Green Politics’ (English Version) by Subrabarathi Maniyan, ‘Butterflies of Tamil Nadu’ by P Mohan Prasath and N Sathish IFS and ‘Forest Plant Identification Manual’ by V S Ramachandran and R Aruna were introduced. Ecologists, members of NGOs, environmentalists and people from various other fields attended the monthly event.