THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The day has seen all, greening initiatives, renouncing plastic, recycling ventures and so forth. It has also given rise to a new crop of individuals who plant trees to mark the day every year. And, the set of newbies to the greening initiative is also increasing.
Free distribution of saplings has also drawn into its fold individuals who turn up diligently to procure them and give their due to the environment. “Planting a sapling gives me immense joy. Watching it blossom and bear fruits is bliss,” said Karamana native Shibu J, who turned up at the IOC outlet at Pattom and collected saplings as part of WED celebrations by The New Indian Express.
This environment day, the 45-year-old will be adding a Guava tree to his collection at home. He was ferrying home a sapling obtained through the free sapling distribution programme. “Free sapling distributions will only serve its purpose if people genuinely nurture the plants,” he added.
“I’m happy to add more saplings to our collection at our workplace,” said Thankarajan, a gardener at the Devaswom Board Office in Nanthancode. “I attend such functions and bring a variety of saplings back to the office,” he added.
The rampant use of pesticides has encouraged several city residents to take up farming at their homes. “We practice gardening in a small space outside our home,” said Anil N, a 40-year-old resident of Ambalanagar. “Amidst rising vegetable prices and poisonous farm products in the market, we are left with no option but to feed our own demands,” he added.
Techies go green
The green cover is significantly getting depleted from the city suburbs. But in the technology hub of the city, a movement is brewing to go green and increase the green canopy in the Technopark campus.
It was with the distribution of 2,000 plus saplings that Prathidhwani, the socio-cultural and welfare organisation of IT employees of Technopark, ushered in the day.
The vehicles bearing the saplings weaved its way through the buildings from the morning, distributing the saplings to the employees. “Over the past few years, we have been marking the day with the distribution of saplings and planting of trees in the campus. Some of the saplings will be planted in the campus as well,” said Bimal Raj, executive committee member of Prathidhwani.
The greening initiative has evoked a huge response from the employees, he says. “Last year we distributed medicinal plants. This time around people kept asking for saplings. This year we have distributed saplings of fruit trees,” he adds. The larger aim is to raise awareness among the employees on the need to conserve trees and encourage them to plant at least one sapling.
Turning dumping sites into gardens
Green initiatives are trending in the city with more youngsters taking steps to protect the environment. One such is a Facebook group ‘ Trivandrum-let’s make our city the best’ who spread the message of protecting the environment through their new group ‘Clean & Green Trivandrum’ where they have been actively working towards converting the waste dumping sites into gardens. It has been more than four months since the group was formed but the already they have carried out clean up drives across the state. The programmes taken up by the group includes planting trees, clearing garbage sites and converting them into beautiful gardens.
The slogan that the group propagates is ‘Be the change, bring the change’. The group also engages in creating awareness programmes related to the environment. Started as a five-member team, the page ‘Clean & Green Trivandrum’ has about more than 86,000 members now. As part of the green initiative, they have cleaned about 500 metres of the divider on the Karamana-Kaliyakkavilai highway starting from Karamana Bridge, Plamoodu, near Pattom and near Sreekanteswaram.
“We didn’t plant any sapling for World Environment Day but we intend to create more awareness among people so that the waste dumping sites can be converted into open gardens,” said Premjith, a member of ‘Clean &Green Trivandrum’. The group has also created ‘open gardens’ with modern gardening techniques such as vertical gardens and has planned more green initiatives in the days to come.
Organic fair
It was a hub bursting with organic and environment-friendly products. A grand organic fair awaited the employees at the IT hub as Prakruthi, the green club of Technopark, celebrated the day by holding a ‘green’ fair and by planting saplings. With the involvement of 25 organic groups, organic firms and such, the programme organised by the group showcased an eclectic array of green, environment-friendly products.
As many as 100 saplings were planted across the various locations in the campus as part of the celebrations. “We have sourced 500 saplings in all and 100 of these were planted today. The next will be planted in the coming days,” said Radhika Viswanathan, core-committee member of Prakruthi. Saplings of fruit trees and rare medicinal trees are being planted as part of the programme.
“The idea is to ensure the upkeep of these saplings. The saplings we planted earlier have grown and we have charted out this as a sustainable programme so as to ensure that these can be developed into orchards and parks,” she adds.
The organisation has also pioneered a campaign #droptheplastic urging the employees to drop one plastic item form their lives forever.