The residents of Nallappa Street in Chromepet never experience the searing heat the residents of the neighbouring streets endure during the hot summer months courtesy of the protective thick foliage the avenue trees provide. Especially coming off the busy Rajendra Prasad Road in Chromepet, dominated by concrete buildings with very few trees, it is likely that any outsider entering Nallappa Street will be left with the impression of being translocated to a green paradise.
The efforts towards greening the street started more than a decade ago when M. Sreedhar along with other like-minded residents in the locality sowed the seeds by planting more than 250 tree saplings on both sides of the streets in 2008. The tireless work of the residents over the years in watering and protecting the saplings has resulted in the street, stretching for nearly half-a-kilometre, turning into a green avenue, despite natural calamities like Vardah and other cyclones over the years uprooting several trees.
The speciality of the greening project in the street is that residents went for native trees rather than exotic options. The small park located in the locality has also been converted into a green canopy.
Mr. Sreedhar said, “Unlike several places in the city where the Gulmohar (Mayflower), which is the usual choice as an avenue tree, we have planted native varieties of Magizham, Shenbagam, Malaivembu, Vembu, Sarakundrai, Jamun and Sappotta trees. The main feature of Magizham is its sturdy branches and the thick leaves creating a green foliage. The street has more than 80 Magizham trees, he added.
Mr. Sreedharan, who is the vice-president of the Federation of Pallavaram Residents’ Welfare Association, through an non-governmental organisation called Vidiyal, has planted more than 85,000 trees in schools, parks and streets.
Dr. Sudha, an executive committee member of the Nallappa Street Residents’ Welfare Association, crediting all the residents of the street for helping maintain the green cover, pointed out that several visitors coming to her house were surprised to see such extensive green cover, not to be seen in any major parts of the city, with a few residents even shifting to Nallappa Street from other places to enjoy the tree-filled aesthetics.
N.P. Raj Kumar, a resident of the street, said, “The uniqueness of the avenue trees in our street has been in planting big trees on one side and small trees on the opposite side so that it does not cause any problems with overhead power lines.”
He said in case of any trees clashing with the overhead electricity lines, the residents themselves employ persons to prune the branches as they fear the local electricity officials would prune them ‘indiscriminately.’ For this reason alone, the residents rued that they had been requesting for the Tangedco officials to shift the overhead power lines underground for several years, which was yet to be fulfilled.
Residents then have taken the core concept of creating lung spaces within the city, ensuring that the benefits of such activities are conferred on to every one living in the area. While their steadfastness of sticking to the green goal is truly inspiring, the way they have managed to ensure the area stays green sends out the message that it is indeed possible to achieve such a feat, even in concrete jungles.
