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For greener spaces

Last Updated 23 February 2015, 17:27 IST

When Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) decided to chop down trees on the roadside to make way for the Metro Rail, a group of young professionals in the City got worried. The question uppermost in their mind: How to compensate for the tree loss? For Harshavardhan, an engineer by profession and the president of Let’s Integrate For Environment (LIFE), a voluntary organisation, it was a moment to pause and think. The ongoing deforestation of Bengaluru triggered him to call his friends for a brainstorming session.


Common ideals

The organisation came to being in 2007, when Swapna SB, also an engineer, Levine Lawrence, a journalist, Adithya Pradyumna, a doctor and environmental researcher, Aravind S and Raghavan, both software professionals, realised the big picture and “integrated”. “Our common interest in trees brought us together, but we realised, we needed training in identifying plants and trees, grafting and re-plantation, surveying the area for future layouts and infrastructure, and finding a place where trees can grow without any hindrance. Most importantly, we had to learn how to encourage people to plant trees, in an age when, deforestation issue had become very common,” said
Harshavardhan.

The group found its niche audience among students. “College students are
interested in such ideas and they also do a lot of volunteering. Many students have helped in planting trees in and around Bengaluru. We organise various activities in schools as well. We take the children to parks to educate them about the different species and the history of trees in the City, besides talking about segregation and
recycling centres. This way, they get first-hand experience of what is happening in the environment.” But there were also many surprises on the way. “When we asked children to identify trees by showing them leaves and fruits of common trees like mango, they couldn’t do it,” Harshavardhan said.

Consequently, LIFE conducted a tree plantation and awareness programme on waste management in a school in JP Nagar in 2014. The school children volunteered to learn how to feed birds. “We used plastic bottles to make bird feeders, and a cup for holding water for birds in our demonstrations,” Harshavardhan said.

LIFE also does plantation drives in homes. When people call LIFE to create ‘mini forests’ in their backyards, they first do an intensive survey of the locality, check availability of water and only then proceed to plant trees. “If you plant saplings in areas with water scarcity, the roots will turn as the plants grow. Another fascinating fact about such mini-forests is that you can use the waste water from your kitchen to water them,” explains Harshavardhan.

Recalling an incident, Harshavardhan said, “Many people who participate in our events, call us back to find out more about trees. Once, someone had planted a sapling in a narrow space between two walls. He called us to find out how to make it grow! I told him the plant needed sunlight, air and water just like us.”

“Getting labourers to dig the ground is a major challenge in the City. That’s why, we carry out most of our activities on the outskirts of the City. Many birds leave the City areas because of the absence of a suitable environment. We plant fruit-bearing trees for such birds,” Harshavardhan said.

LIFE has come a long way from being just a group of plant enthusiasts. It has planted 200 endangered species of trees in Chalaghatta, Bengaluru. They also give away saplings to fellow tree enthusiasts, and conduct tree-planting events on weekends. The group focuses on planting non-commercial and endangered species as a mark of their ‘commitment to nature’.

“Anyone can cut down a commercial tree, but planting an endangered species is a commitment to nature,” he said. Some of the endangered species of trees and plants include Syzygium Travancoricum (locally known as kulavetti or vadhamkolli), a critically endangered species, Madhucca Diplostemon, a small forest tree that is marked endangered now due to loss of forest land, trees from the Myristica Species, and the endangered Red Sandalwood, which only grows in the dry deciduous forests of the Eastern Ghats.

If we want to witness a meaningful change, we need to make nature conservation a habit. “We cannot simply plant a tree and run away,” Harshavardhan concludes.
For more details, visit www. letsintegrateforenvironment.blogspot.in.

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(Published 23 February 2015, 17:27 IST)

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