
COIMBATORE: The Chikkarampalayam village panchayat, located near Karamadai, has established a nursery with thousands of saplings intended to be planted along the Mettupalayam-Avinashi Road, where the highways department plans to remove over 1,400 trees for road expansion.
The state government has approved a project to widen the 35-km stretch of road from Avinashi to Mettupalayam, passing through Annur, into a four-lane road under the Chief Minister's Rural Road Development Programme, with an outlay of Rs 250 crore. This expansion is expected to reduce traffic heading to the Nilgiris district.
As part of this project, the highways department plans to remove 1,432 trees. To compensate for the trees axed, the department must plant ten saplings for one tree removed.
Apart from the measures taken by the highways department, the Chikkarampalayam village panchayat is also raising saplings even though it will not be directly affected by the road work.
"The road expansion is necessary for development, but it unfortunately results in the loss of over 1,500 trees. Although we are not directly affected, we plan to provide saplings to areas that will suffer from a loss of greenery. Our goal is to maintain the green cover in the region." said S Gnanasekaran, president of the panchayat.
He said that they are growing around 5,000 saplings of native trees, including Neem, Peepal, Banyan, Athi (fig), and Jamun trees. Particularly, they have prepared approximately 3,000 tamarind tree saplings, which are common along roads in Tamil Nadu. They are utilizing workers from MGNRES scheme for the purpose.
"It will take at least six to eight months to nurture the saplings. Once the highways department completes the road expansion, we will plant and maintain them," he said.
Gnanasekaran, with support from the panchayat people, has so far planted more than 10,000 saplings in various reserve sites across Karamadai and Mettupalayam region.