The Green Force
iwantatree.com
One fine morning in 2003 some of us decided to make our surroundings Greener. "The Green Force" was born, and we planted saplings. Over 150 of them. In a month or so. And it was HARD work ! And this is one the most satisfying things I have ever done. To plant over 150 Trees all over Jayanagar.
Our local corporator gave us permission to go ahead with the planting and he officially planted the first one and helped us get tree guards etc.
Tree guards - Initially we got those black tree guards from the forest department, but then not for too long. So we had to go out of the city and harvest some natural spiny leaves to act as tree guards !
Saplings - We got free saplings from the forest department. We had some very helpful officials on our side who made sure that we could get our saplings.
Transport - this was the craziest, transporting saplings and tree guards on a kinetic honda one at a time !
rain/sun - I remember planting saplings during sweltering mornings as well as pouring evenings. heh. We were on a mission and nothing stopped us !
why we stopped - I really dont remember. Although it seems simple there was a ton of red tape and we really had to work really hard to get the saplings and tree guards.
The corporator planting the first sapling - 23 June 2003
The most kick ass team ever :) (all of them are not there in this picture).
The First Sapling - June 2003
Now - 4 years later. Aug 2007 (the big tall tree in the pic)
Overall an amazing experience and something that I am really proud about !
It feels so good when you pass by a strapping Tree and you remember how a bunch of friends planted it as a small sapling !
Sometime last year some of us decided to re-iginite this and try doing this on a larger scale and iwantatree.com was born. My idea was that folks in Bangalore could order for a tree to be planted someplace and a we could go over and plant it for them and they would have to take care of it ! Online booking of Trees ! Yipee. We can paint the town Green.
Unfortunately the project just died because of lack of folks this time around. Guess its always simple when you do things yourself.
You reap what you sow. Maybe you will not be able to change the world but at least you will feel happy that you have made a difference !