Summer is upon us, and there is water shortage every where. Residents have no idea how they will get through the season. And when there is not enough water for our basic needs, no one is going to think about watering or planting saplings. This is where the the team Nanai, an NGO, comes into picture.
“Most of the trees that grow on the roadside are kaatu maram (wild trees), they cannot stand strong winds and hence get easily uprooted,” said Madhan Kumar of Nanai.
News Today caught up with him and his group when they were busy planting saplings. They have been involved in planting tree saplings across Chennai. The 28-year-old said, “Our city is filled with wild trees which don’t have much benefits. Our NGO aims at promoting planting of native trees and we have been doing this for the last three years. We go around the city planting saplings.”
“We only plant native trees like Arasamaram, Sungamaram, Athimaram and Neem. Along with this, we also teach the locals about the benefits of indigenous trees. For trees like Marudhamaram, only a little amount of water is enough from which they will save enough nutrients,” Madhan informed.
“For the past two months alone we have planted over 800 trees. When we plant a sapling in an area, we usually promote a bonding between the locals and the trees so that they will care for them better. But the challenging part is growing them properly. We mostly encourage locals to safeguard the saplings. But, still we can’t assure if they do it regularly. So we need volunteers to take care of these saplings,” he added.
Madhan Kumar can be reached at 90953 91602.