At the sprawling Kishkinta theme park, near Tambaram, in-house horticulturists are drawing up a list of trees that have to be transplanted.
For the management and some of the long-serving staff at the park, the exercise comes with an element of nostalgia.
In 1989, when the theme park was being set up on an open field, measuring 115 acres, a decision was made by the management not to plant new saplings, but transplant fully-grown trees.
“We wanted greenery at the park, from day one of our operations, so transplanting trees was a more favourable option,” says Jose Punnoose, joint managing director, Kishkinta. When the theme park started operations in 1995, it had lush greenery.
A team of horticulturists and architects helped the management choose the trees.
“We sourced trees from construction sites, where trees were going to be axed, and also from nurseries,” says Jose, adding that around 1,000 trees were transplanted at the site.
The next step involved taking care of these trees.
“For the first four to five years, we took good care of them. For example, during summer, we had to keep them moisturised, and we had ropes made of straw dripping water on the trees,” says Jose.
Raintrees were avoided in the parking area and many avenue trees were chosen.
Now, cyclone Vardah has uprooted over 250 trees on the premises and the management is looking at replanting many of these trees. They agree that this will be an expensive exercise, but waiting for a sapling to grow into a tree takes time.
“Every time we transplant trees, we are also getting better at selecting the trees that are more robust,” he adds.
