Fourteen vintage trees in Government Law College in Tiruchi on Wednesday were uprooted and transplanted within the campus to make way for a new building.
According to an official statement, the project was carried out on the institution’s Khajamalai campus under the guidance of the Chief Conservator of Forests and the District Forest Officer with technical know-how provided by Green Care, a Coimbatore-based non-governmental organisation.
The programme also involved the participation of Range staff from Tiruchi division. “Trees often get destroyed or thrown by the wayside during construction or road widening; transplanting them is a more eco-friendly way to save them,” said K. Syed, chairman, Green Care.
Fully grown trees from species, including neem (Azadirachta indica), Indian laburnum (Cassia fistula), almond (Terminalia catappa), pungan (Millettia pinnata) and Indian ash (Lannea coromandelica), were removed and brought to the periphery of the campus with earth-moving equipment and sown in planting beds up to 10 feet in depth. The exposed parts of the branches were covered to protect them from damage during transportation.
Following this, the Forest Rangers visited Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital in Puthur to study the progress of trees transplanted from the site of an upcoming new wing to another part of the campus earlier last month.
Environmentalists felt that re-planting old trees could conserve the environment in a more sustainable way since new plantation drives required heavy investment in maintenance and labour.
