The Tiruvannamalai Greening Society has conceived the Divine Forest scheme under which it has planned to protect the greenery of the temple town and increase the forest wealth by inviting the public to celebrate their birthdays/wedding anniversaries or commemorate other events by sponsoring trees which would be planted in a specified patch of forest.
Tiruvannamalai Collector Vijay Pingale inaugurated the scheme by planting tree saplings in the ‘Divine Forest’ located on a 3-hectare land opposite Government Arts College at the foothills in Chengam Road here on Tuesday.
Mr. Pingale said the plan was to plant 1000 ‘vanni’ and ‘vilvam’ trees under the scheme. Members of the public interested in commemorating important days can remit Rs. 2000 per tree (for ‘vanni’ and ‘vilvam’ trees) or Rs. 2500 per tree (for ‘magizham’, ‘nagalingam’, ‘kadambam’, ‘shenbagam’ and ‘athi’ trees) in cash either at the society office located in the District forest Office, Tiruvannamalai or at any branch of Indian Bank in India.
A tree would be maintained and a name board with the name of the contributor would be erected near the tree.
The amount could be paid in the society office located in the District Forest Office in Tiruvannamalai and obtain the receipt for the same.
Bank remittance
In the case of bank remittance, the amount could be remitted in favour of Tiruvannamalai Greening Society Divine Forest into the account No. 6131950857.
The sponsors could visit the Divine Forest any time to see the trees planted by them.
The Collector said the scheme has been started on an experimental basis in Tiruvannamalai.
If there was a good response, the scheme would be extended to other parts of Tiruvannamalai district.
He appealed to the public to participate in the scheme and help make Tiruvannamalai a green district.
Muthukrishnan, president, Seshadri Swamigal Ashram, Tiruvannamalai handed over a spot advance of Rs.17,000 to Sekhar, Lead District Manager of Indian Bank, for planting trees. V. Naganathan, District Forest Officer; S. Valarmathi, District Revenue Officer; Kasi, Revenue Divisional Officer, Tiruvannamalai and Ramu Pillai, Manager, Tiruvannamalai Greening Society participated in the function.
