Three years ago, following the havoc wreaked on Chennai by cyclone Vardah, Y. Eshwar volunteered to clear uprooted trees at a temple in Kovilambakkam. During the volunteering work, he met a few IT professionals working at the software firms on Old Mahabalipuram Road and Velachery. As he was working as an art director, but in an IT establishment, he found a lot of common ground with them. These software professionals were engaged in tree-planting work, and their volunteering work impacted Eshwar greatly.
Since then, Eshwar, 32, has been spending weekends on tree-planting activities. As he is a resident of Ayapakkam near Ambattur, he focusses on localities in northern and western sections of Chennai. Eshwar works at a company that operates for the Ambattur IT Park in Ambattur Industrial Estate.
Eshwar is now coordinator of an informal group called Nanai, which focusses on tree-planting. It is around one year old; and since its inception, it has been conducting weekend tree-planting drives, an effort made possible by 170-member volunteering team. With people across industries and age groups, the team is quite diverse in its composition.
“Some of my friends including Prem and Madan whom I met during cyclone Vardah work were taking care of plantation drive in the south of the city as they live there. I have been focussing on the northern and western areas of the city, especially the outskirts. Our focus is to plant native trees that suit the local weather and soil conditions,” says Eshwar.
Initially, Nanai was considerbally small, with just a handful of friends from different areas of Chennai. With the spread of messages its plantation drives mainly through Facebook (it has a Facebook page titled Nanai) and whatsApp, more volunteers joined it, says Eshwar.
“Now the group is more organised. In fact, it has has two nurseries – one at Nanmangalam near Tambaram, and the other at Paruthipattu in Avadi – to provide saplings for the plantation drives. The tree species the group plants includes Malai Vembu, Neer Maruthu, Sorgham, Kadukai, Nellikai and Thandrikai.
Volunteers at work. Photos: Special arrangement
Volunteering work by members includes providing seeds, filling bags with red sand, sowing seeds in nurseries, transport of saplings to the work spots, planting saplings and watering them, collecting seeds, inspecting spots for tree plantation including checking on the availability of water, and mobilising volunteers, says Eshwar.
“Our aim is to have saplings of native trees planted on every street in Chennai. This is a life-long exercise for us,” says Eshwar.
