Cut one down, we'll plant three

Say techies, who want to plant 1.5 lakh saplings to compensate for trees felled because of metro

Say techies, who want to plant 1.5 lakh saplings to compensate for trees felled because of metrou00a0

Forget protests against felling of trees; some techies have a better idea.

They will plant three saplings for every tree felled in the city because of the metro and other projects.

The axe effect: A portion of Lalbagh will change forever as metro rail work begins. Around 1,800 trees in Bangalore, most of them decades old, would be felled for the Bangalore Metro project. And the much hyped Namma Metro would gobble up parts of Lalbagh and Cubbon Park in the days to come.u00a0file pic

"Planting saplings is the need of hour and protests are not an alternative," said B N Shivshankar, an environmentalist who is leading the initiative. "We have to plant more trees before it's too late."

About 200 engineers from Wipro and Infosys, apart from members of groups such as Green Army and Samraksha will participate in the initiative, starting on World Environment Day, June 5.

"We have decided to increase the city's green cover, which is decreasing day by day," said Stephen Anthony, a software engineer from Wipro.

"We plan to start off by planting saplings in barren lands throughout the city," he said.

The group will plant saplings every weekend in places such as Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, Morarji Navodaya Vidyalayas, hospitals, government hostels and schools.

Each volunteer will so also donate Rs 20 towards the maintenance of each sapling they plant.

The group plans to plant around 1.5 lakh saplings that include species such as Neem, Avenue Tree and Gul Mohar.

They will also carry out awareness campaigns at schools, colleges and hospitals and gift saplings at functions such as weddings, birthday parties etc.u00a0