Chitlapakkam Rising, which began as an online social group in August 2013 and was registered as Chitlapakkam Rising Charitable Trust five months ago, has had an eventful start to the New Year.
On January 1, 20 members of Chitlapakkam Rising planted saplings at the Corporation park in Kalaivanar Street. The effort marks the beginning of an initiative to green Corporation parks in and around Chitlapakkam that have lost much of their green cover due to Vardah.
“We believe more than 100 trees have been uprooted in Chitlapakkam. Restoring the lost greenery would require the involvement of all stakeholders,” says Sunil Jayaraman, a member of the forum.
It chooses to plant a variety of indigenous tree species, including poovarasu, maramalli , nagai and pungai .
Chitlapakkam Rising sourced the saplings from one of its members S. Balasubramanian.
Residents’ welfare associations of Srinivasa Nagar, Sarvamangala Nagar, MC Nagar, Raman Street, Raja Rajeshwari Nagar and State Bank Colony, Babu Street will be supporting the initiative by nurturing the saplings that have been planted in their respective colonies.
“We will approach commercial establishments in the neighbourhood for sponsorship of mesh to protect the tree saplings. We are also exploring how we can make fences for the saplings with whatever materials we have,” says Sunil.
Chitlapakkam Rising will organise tree planting drives at various parks in the neighbourhood on weekends, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.
It invites residents to take part in the exercise by donating saplings, planting and nurturing them. The core objectives of Chitlapakkam Rising include ensuring that Chitlapakkam gets more civic amenities, becomes cleaner and the natural resources there are conserved.
The group has around 2,200 members on Facebook, including residents of Chitlapakkam. For details, call Sunil Jayaram at 9500122151.
