Two boys stand up for their favourite tree

“Trees are home to small flora and fauna. They also have the right to live as much as they can and should not be axed for our right of way.’’

This message from two boys has saved a 30-foot-tall fig tree from being axed near Bellandur lake.

Parth Choudhary (9) and his brother Arjun Choudhary (7), residents of Euphoria Apartments next to Bellandur lake, have given a new lease of life to their favourite fig tree in their apartment complex. The roots of the tree were hindering the sewage line.

“It all started around four months back, when the apartment association decided to improve the sewage line. It was found that the tree’s roots were damaging the sewage line. The association members decided to uproot the tree. Parth and Arjun revolted when the contractors started chopping the branches. The boys’ questions made us think and in one month, we found a solution. But we decided to implement it during monsoon and in the last two days, the tree was saved,” said Prashanth Choudhary, their father. The children questioned the elders why should the tree not live its full life like humans.

“What will happen to birds and all flora and fauna dependent on the tree after it is chopped? Where will the birds and squirrels go? And why do we say ‘save a tree’ when we are chopping one?

Even if five saplings are planted after one tree is cut, what do we and the birds do till those five saplings become trees?” they questioned.

The apartment dwellers contacted Vijay Nishanth, environmentalist, who assessed the situation and suggested installing a root barrier, which would cost Rs 25,000. Residents of the apartment contributed some money and the children also decided to raise money through public funding. They went door to door explaining the situation and collected Rs 7,000.

How it works?

“The root barrier arrests the growth of the roots without impacting the tree. After undertaking a similar operation successfully last year, I decided to implement it here as it was impossible to relocate the huge tree.

Some of the large roots were pruned. Root treatment was administered with orange oil and bee wax. Nutrition bags were tied to the pruned roots. The root barrier was filled with manure-rich soil,” said Nishanth.

Parth and Arjun are now happy and have promised to take care of the tree every day. “We will save as many trees as possible. We will tell this to our friends and teachers at school and make them save many more. We are taught in school to save trees and we just did what we were taught,” Parth said.