09 February,2010 09:27 AM IST | | Chandran Iyer
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar followers agree to plant 30 saplings, after MiD DAY report highlights how they chopped trees to make space for a stage
Last month, some Art of Living (AOL) volunteers chopped branches of a tree on the S P College premises to make way for a giant stage for a grand public function. The same volunteers have now decided to plant 30 saplings at the same venue to compensate for the loss. The incident was exclusively reported in MiD DAY on January 5.
Nitin Pradhan, an AOL teacher and organiser of Mission Green Earth, the environment wing of AOL, told MiD DAY, "To compensate for the loss, we will plant 30 trees on the S P College premises on February 10 at 10.30 am. The branches were cut to make way for a gigantic stage on which about 2,600 Hindustani classical vocalists performed a three-hour long classical music symphony in the presence of Sri Sri Ravishankar," said Pradhan.
Promise fulfilled
Pradhan added that 30 pits have been dug to plant the trees, which included mango, neem, ashoka, avala and
other varieties.
When MiD DAY had reported the story of tree chopping the spokesperson of the AOL Kumkum Naren had said, "If somebody from AOL has cut trees or branches for the function, we take the entire responsibility. We promise to plant more trees."
Kids adopt trees
Mission Green Earth will convince 1,000 school children across Pune to become parents of saplings planted by them. The kids will give the plants names and their own surnames and nurture them for three months, in order to make them conscious of environmental issues.
Tree activist and environmentalist Vinod Jain said he was happy that more trees were being planted in the city. "The AOL activists are doing a good thing by planting trees.
