HYDERABAD: Call him a matchmaker — for trees. Uday Krishna Peddireddi connects mature trees facing the axe with people who have the land, resources and willingness to give them a new home. Instead of an axe, an adopter. When a tree is marked for felling to make way for a road or construction project, years of growth, shade and environmental value can disappear within hours. But for Uday Krishna Peddireddi, founder of Vata Foundation, a tree facing the axe need not be a tree lost.
Since the foundation was established in 2015, it has facilitated the transplantation of more than 7,500 trees across seven states, according to its website. Krishna estimates that between 7,500 and 8,000 trees have been adopted through the initiative, with at least 80% surviving.
The idea took shape even before the foundation came into existence. In 2010, when 16 trees were threatened by construction work for a foot overbridge in Kukatpally, Krishna decided to relocate them rather than cut them down. Thirteen survived, convincing him that transplantation could offer a practical alternative to felling mature trees.
Initially, however, saving trees was only half the challenge. Krishna needed land to accommodate them, people willing to bear transportation costs and someone to care for them after transplantation. He began reaching out through social media, gradually building a network of people looking to adopt trees and others with suitable land who needed help covering relocation expenses.
The network grew organically, with people contacting him whenever they wanted a tree or could offer space for one. The extent of public interest became clear when he posted about a peepal tree near his mother’s residence. The tree stood on a plot whose new owner wanted to remove it. The post prompted around 500 to 600 people to express interest in adopting it.
For Krishna, the response showed that the willingness to save trees already existed. What was missing was a system to connect trees facing removal with prospective adopters quickly enough to prevent them from being felled.
A recent effort along National Highway 163 brought this challenge into focus. After noticing hundreds of trees that had already been cut near the Moinabad-Aziznagar stretch, Krishna raised the issue on social media, tagging Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). He sought permission to relocate around 240 trees at no cost to the authorities.
The process required formal correspondence and additional permissions from the Forest department. Although the authorities initially gave him seven days to complete the work, the NHAI later decided to undertake the transplantation itself.
To speed up the process of finding adopters, Krishna is developing an application that will connect people with trees available for relocation. If trees become available in Gachibowli, for instance, the proposed system would identify interested adopters within a five-kilometre radius and notify them.
He prioritises adopters living close to the trees’ original locations, as shorter transportation distances reduce costs and improve the chances of survival. Wherever feasible, he aims to have a tree replanted within an hour of being uprooted. The availability of suitable land and a commitment to post-transplantation care are also essential.
The cost of moving trees varies according to their size, the equipment required and the number being relocated. Smaller trees may be moved using an earthmover, a truck and a crane, while large banyans can require heavy machinery and specialised transport. During a 2017 operation near the Kukatpally Forum Mall flyover, more than 90 trees were relocated at an average cost of around `3,500 per tree, Krishna recalled. Moving several trees together helped spread the costs of equipment and labour.
The environmental benefits of saving mature trees are particularly significant as cities face rising temperatures. Krishna estimates that the approximately 239 trees involved in the highway initiative were around 15 years old and had collectively stored 65 to 70 tonnes of carbon. He puts their annual carbon uptake at around 6.5 to 6.7 tonnes collectively, though the figures depend on the trees’ characteristics and growth.
Yet transplantation alone is not enough, he cautions. Trees must be uprooted carefully, replanted appropriately, watered and monitored. Excessive pruning to cut equipment costs can compromise their survival, while neglect after relocation can undo the entire effort.
With thousands of trees transplanted through Vata’s work and a growing network of prospective adopters, Krishna wants tree adoption to become a routine consideration in infrastructure projects. His aim is not to stop every development project, but to ensure that trees capable of surviving are not felled simply because relocating them requires more planning.
He has urged the government to simplify tree transplantation and provide the support needed to save mature trees threatened by infrastructure projects. His next proposal concerns a stretch of the Kalyan-Nashik highway, where he hopes to relocate 45 large banyan trees intact, without cutting their branches. Krishna has sought equipment support from Union minister Gadkari, offering to coordinate the work without charging the NHAI.