Trees as we all know are of great importance for the whole human fraternity as well as managing the natural balance in the environment. However, we human beings are regularly cutting down the trees for fulfilling our personal needs without seeing its side effects on the society and the environment.

This insane act of deforestation is affecting our environment through climate imbalance, increasing global warming, soil erosion, floods, wildlife extinction, dip in the fresh oxygen level and an increase in the carbon dioxide etc. This impact is unfortunately understood by only a few in this world. Mindless chopping of trees has turned out to be the main environmental and social issue which has now taken the form of more than a powerful demon.

Children exhibit their paintings at the Environment Day programme organised by I Change Indiranagar.

Ideally, there should be simple and easy ways to make common people aware about the causes and effects of deforestation. Whenever any plant is cut, there should be strict rules for replanting a new plant in the place of old one. But sadly none of this is being followed.

Keeping this in mind, the active residents of Indira Nagar, had come forward and organised tree sapling planting drive on June 4th. We had strategically identified a number of spots in all the streets of the residential area to plant trees and had all geared up to even personally take care of them! We wish to pass on this strong message to every citizen through these words: “Just as every drop adds to the ocean, every single tree planted will help improve the environment and hopefully in a couple of years this alarming issue can be resolved. Come indulge and contribute to bringing back life into our environment, before it’s too late.”

Thalavattam team performs at the Environment Day celebration.

The recent cutting down of the African tulip by vested interests in our residential neighbourhood had also hit us hard. The sweltering heat of this summer made the residents realise that initial impacts of climate change are beginning to be felt. They were  curious about going green and  wanted to do something good for the environment. I Change Indira Nagar had organised various activities that  provide an opportunity for community involvement and empowerment that can improve the quality of life in our neighbourhood. Exposure to green spaces provides well being and psychological relief from urban stress.

CV Raman Nagar Constituency MLA, S Raghu inaugurated the programme by planting several trees across BM Kaval and Krishna Temple road on Indira Nagar 1st Stage, Indira Nagar 2nd Stage 10th A Main and the double road near BDA Complex.

Thalavattam team performs at the Environment Day celebration.

The tree planting initiative was jointly organised by the four active Residents Welfare Associations in the neighbourhood, namely Indira Nagar 1st Stage League, Indira Nagar 2nd Stage League, BM Kaval Residents Welfare Association and Defence Colony Residents Association under the name I Change Indiranagar, on June 4th at Swamy Vivekananda Park at CMH Road. Residents of Indiranagar have come together to strive for a cleaner and greener Indiranagar. ‘Save Green’ Hemanth and I, a nature enthusiast teamed up with the residents. Two days were spent to  identify suitable spots and prepare them for planting hundreds of  trees.

The tree saplings and tree guards for Indira Nagar have been provided by the BBMP Forest Department.
Tree Mapping: Efforts are on to map trees around Indira Nagar and digitise them with the help of citizens participation. An introductory session on mapping will be conducted by Arun Ganesh, he is  a crazy mapper booking more than 7,000 edits on OpenStreetMap. He is an avid editor on the Wikipedia project where he has contributed many of India’s maps.

C V Raman Nagar constituency MLA S Raghu speaks after inaugurating the programme.

Entertainment: Performance by Thalavattam, a team which is quite unique in its own way – all their musical instruments are made from upcycled material. Eighty per cent of their instruments are made from stuff people throw away! The children enjoyed the performance.

Painting competition was organised for children, unquestionably the theme was around trees.