BENGALURU: With years of felling trees in the name of infrastructural projects and commercial development, our lush green forest cover has faded into oblivion, the chirp of birds silenced and animals deprived of their homes in the wild. While we carry on with our lives, barely bothering about declining forests, Jeeth Milan Roche, an environmentalist from Mangaluru, is on a mission to transform the city and save green cover in India.
A former techie, Roche quit his corporate job in 2004 when he hit a major rough patch in his career. His world spiralled even as he slipped into depression and hopelessness. With no particular plans, he set out to plant saplings around him, little knowing he was about to create his own little change for the planet. Observing the minimal green cover around, he started planting one sapling at a time. What started as a simple remedy to kill depression paved the way for a passion to extend the state’s forest cover.
Adding a green touch all around Mangaluru, he has planted 2 lakh trees since 2016 -- about 12,000 trees every year -- in schools, cemeteries and dumpyards. He says cemeteries, that lay bare and spooky around Mangaluru, have now become the city’s lungs. “Graveyards are one of the safest places for trees to grow. They are sites that humans don’t venture to clear and build compact buildings. I have planted 8,000 trees in 20 cemeteries, and they remain safe owing to low human intervention,” Roche adds.
On the other hand, in 2020, even as the world reeled under the pandemic, Roche planted 3,000 trees in Mangaluru’s infamous Pachanady dumpyard. He and Madhu, an environment engineer, believed that the green cover could help reduce the stench, while adding to the city’s greenery.
Saving Kanthavara
Vana Charitable Trust, a forest conservation project led by Roche, initiated a distinctive forest conservation project in Kanthavara, a reserve forest in Karkala taluk in Udupi district. Owing to the trend of diminishing forests in the country, the Trust saw the urgent need for a conservation project that would educate children, teachers and the public about the restoration of fading forests. It also keeps vigil on activities inside the forest, while working closely with the forest department to keep them aware of the violations.
Roche says, “We have come across 12 violations in the last four months. Tribals who live inside the forest alert us when they come across people felling trees, hunting and encroaching. They send us the location and we immediately inform the forest department and reach the spot.”
Aswath Gatty, Deputy Range Forest Officer, adds that tribals living inside the forest have helped the department thwart encroachments, hunting and other illegal activities. The initiative of Vana Charitable Trust has helped forest officials create awareness among locals, children and the public at large.
As part of the conservation project in Kanthavara, students, teachers and volunteer groups arrive at Kanthavara base camp during weekends to learn more about the importance of forests and their conservation. They are provided food, staying facilities and other arrangements. These groups are educated by locals and the forest department about the importance of forests and how they can be restored. They also engage in cleaning and tree plantation activities.
K Gopika, who heads the Sahaya team, a centre for environmental concerns at St Aloysius College, Mangaluru, says students have grown empathetic to nature by volunteering with Vana Charitable Trust. “Nature has given us everything in abundance, therefore I believe human beings are obliged to give back what we have taken from it. Planting saplings in different parts of the city has not only beautified it, but has also helped students and volunteers give back to nature,” she adds.
The Sahaya team enables a group of 60 graduate students volunteer every weekend with other volunteers from the city. They plant saplings and take care of young saplings, while actively working towards expanding the city’s green cover. Says Aswath, “It has helped us educate children about fading forests in the country. While most of these children will grow up and carry on with their lives, I am sure a few would remember the importance of saving the wild.”
Roche also talks about “investing in nature”, where an individual buys an estate to be converted into a forest, rather than using it for personal gain. He says his friend bought an estate in Kanthavara to convert it into a forest, which helped the Trust conserve it simultaneously. It also involves panchayat staff and other elected representatives in this drive to conserve forests. Awareness programmes on waste management and reducing the use of plastic are also being undertaken, Roche says.