Residents of Chennai’s Velachery get together to ‘green’ their locality

Residents associations in collaboration with NGOs are planting saplings in the area and plan to create a Miyawaki forest

Residents planting flowering shrubs on a road median

Residents of Velachery and surrounding areas, along with a few NGOs have come together to develop a ‘Green Velachery’.

On Thursday, on the occasion of Earth Day, they planted more than 150 saplings across the locality including a median garden on the road linking Taramani - Perungudi and Velachery MRTS stations.

Hundreds of people have been complaining about the seemai karuvelam (Prosopis juliflora) in the median and by the side of the Taramani - Perungudi and Velachery MRTS station Link Roads. “Besides, many residents felt that it was high time to make Velachery greener as there is plenty of space and waterbodies in the locality. Hence around 10 residential associations along with Rotary Club of Chennai Velachery, Exnora International and other NGOs started the Green Velachery Team,” said S. Kumararaja, its co-ordinator.

After much discussion, the residents removed the unwanted shrubs on the median on the link road running up to 2.5 km and planted flowering plants. “We planted 150 plants. This will also reduce the impact of high beams from vehicles. A total of 200 residents participated in the event,” he said.

Besides, the residents also planted saplings in the Greater Chennai Corporation Park in VGP Selva Nagar. “Our target is to plant one lakh saplings and make Velachery greener within five years. We will also be planting saplings around the water bodies and all across the locality. We are planning a Miyawaki forest in the area,” said M. Ravichandran, another co-ordinator of the group.

He said that they have sought permission from the civic body to start a nursery on the Corporation’s grounds. “As of now we are getting tree saplings from other areas. We thought it would be better to have a nursery of our own,” he added.