Tree lovers give fresh lease of life to peepal in Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: Tree lovers and environmental enthusiasts have given a fresh lease of life to a 35-year-old

peepal

which had to be removed from the Trichy Road in Coimbatore due to the ongoing flyover work.

K Syed of the environmental organisation

Osai

who is the project officer in the department of environmental sciences at Bharathiar University, said they uprooted the tree from Ramanathapuram on the Trichy Road and transplanted it at an upcoming private residential complex in Kuniyamuthur.

“Earlier, for road expansion work or flyover work, they would first start by chopping down trees. After our intervention and representations, officials of departments try to save as many

trees

as possible. They call us to see whether any tree can be saved by transplanting,” he said.

For the transplantation process, they trimmed the tree’s branches, uprooted it, scooped up 1.5feet of mother soil from the tree’s initial location, applied cowdung to the cut portions, tied it with a gunny sack cloth and transported it to the destination, said Syed.

“We scooped out a 10 cubic feet pit at the spot where we transplanted the tree, mixed the mother soil with neem oil-cake, coconut fibre waste, and vermicompost and then planted the tree,” he said.

Syed said they had transplanted more than 100 trees across the country in this method, with 60% success rate. “We can transplant only those particular trees which have milky sap, such as those of the genus ficus — banyan, peepal and fig. This is just an attempt. We hope to see more trees being saved, and people coming forward to do it,” he said.