MYSURU: Housethat! He believes in nurturing nature. So much so that he has mortgaged his house to plant saplings and give a green cover to Chamarajanagar.C M Venkatesh (47), an audit and tax consultant, has been planting saplings along the main thoroughfares of the town since 2017, and he has been watering and nurturing them until they grow into big, sturdy trees. When he started, he had no savings except for the only house he owns, which is valued at approximately Rs 40 lakh. Therefore, Venkatesh pledged its property documents at a bank and took a loan of Rs 10 lakh. Since then, he has planted nearly 1,750 saplings — his aim is to plant 10,000.
Every tree he has planted has been named after film actors, great singers, freedom fighters and social workers, such as Salumarada Thimmakka, Dr Rajkumar, Shivarajkumar, Sudeep, Ravichandran, Puneeth Rajkumar, Ganesh, S P Balasubramanyam and S Janaki to name a few. To water the plants, he has set aside his Sundays, from dawn to dusk, and hires five tankers, each with a capacity of 5,000 litres. With the help of agriculture experts, he finds out if the trees are free of pest attacks and diseases, and uses pesticides when needed. He also uses fertilisers and other nutrients for their growth.
Trees, which have reached an average height of 15 feet over the last two years, have guards around them. “They will need maintenance for another four years,” he says. “The district has lost its green cover to a large extent in the last two decades. I feel happy to see people taking shelter under a tree that I have planted.” His family -- wife J Jayalakshmi, and children K Harikrishnan and Neelakanta — sometimes accompany him on his tree-planting drives.
Whenever footpaths are laid, Venkatesh marks an outline on the cement paving and digs a pit into it to plant trees. He requests officials and contractors to leave it uncovered and once they are done with their work, he moves in with saplings of peepal, banyan, neem, sampige, wild almond, honge, jackfruit, nerale, gasagase and so on. He has plans to visit schools and colleges in the coming days, and educate children about the importance of planting trees. “I want to extend this work to Kollegal, Hannur, Yelandru and Gundlupet. I plan to plant at least 1,000 trees every year,” he says.
What inspired him? He says his grandfather planted saplings in his village and they are big trees now. Whenever he visits his village, people there talk in tones of gratitude about his grandfather and how the trees benefit them. That motivated him to embark on this green mission.Venkatesh says that he decided early on not to ask anyone for money for this. “Most of my friends laugh at me and wonder why I am compelled to plant trees, even pledging my house for it.” He has also pledged gold for `1 lakh on July 23.
“Till 2017, I had not even watered a single plant. As per the suggestions of friends, I decided to plant 10 saplings to mark the birth anniversary of Dr Rajkumar. After two months, looking at the growth of the trees I felt happy, and decided to plant more trees,” he says.“Prior to planting saplings, I get permission from the Chamarajanagar City Municipal Council. I engage Zilla Panchayat members, president, councillors, officers and the bank officials to participate in the tree-planting programmes. I have been receiving a very good response.” nagarathna@newindianexpress,com
FOR HEALTHY GROWTH
A minimum of three years maintenance is needed for honge plant (Indian Beech Tree), while other trees need four to five years’ maintenance. The saplings have to be protected with tree guards, and weeds should be removed often. Watering should be done once a week and manure once in three months.
WATERS SAPLINGS EVERY SUNDAY
On the stretch of Sampige Road, Venkatesh has planted saplings of sampige and on Court Road, he has planted a colourful flowering tree, which start blossoming by 2022. Five to six tankers
of water is used to water the saplings every Sunday.