When a human being falls ill, we look for treatment. Our trees are now all hurt, and still have life in them, but why are we killing them?... These are the thoughts going through minds of environmentalists, as they look at Chennaiites, who are cutting trees down in haste after the recent Cyclone Vardah that hit the city and left many trees damaged. With an estimated 10,000 trees damaged, and more being cut down, even when they can be restored, the city’s green cover is at a very vulnerable state. Green crusaders from across the state say if Chennai doesn’t take nature seriously even now, disasters will be inevitable for the city with each year.
What can be a dangerous sign for the city is that out of the required 33.3 percentage of green cover, it only had a mere seven percent — which is now being further reduced hugely after this nature-consuming cyclone. All that the environmentalists are asking us is that, we think before we cut those broken trees and burn them down, as it takes very simple steps in bringing them back to life.
A particular picture shared by Alladi Mahadevan, an organic farmer at The Organic Farm, on how right pruning methods can get our trees back to life has been catching the attention of netizens. “By simply making a slanting cut on a broken branch, and keeping it watered, we can allow it to grow back, as there is still life in it. And for those trees which have been uprooted, one can replant it, as it can definitely grow again. Cutting them completely down is not an option,” asserts Mahadevan.
Abdul Ghani, a social activist and environmentalist points out that it is disheartening to see people cutting trees as the time now requires all of us to save the damaged trees before stepping ahead to plant more.
Many trees, which are over 100 years old, have been destroyed by the cyclone and that will lead to a direct impact on the city’s air pollution levels and humidity as the trees helped keep these two elements in check. Even if we plant new saplings now, they will take a very long time to grow. So, we must look to restoring the damaged trees and replanting them. The only positive thing this cyclone has helped the city with, is by washing away the pollution particles settled in the air,” explains Abdul.
Vanitha Mohan, of Coimbatore-based environmental NGO Siruthuli, believes that the government and social groups must immediately identify reserve lands to plant trees close to each other, so as to make for green pockets that can help fill the loss of green canopy partially. “With Chennai’s urban expansion going beyond what it can take, the existing tree cover was always falling short — trees would be cut to build with no thought. It is necessary for the city to maintain a man to tree proportion. What we can do now as an immediate step is planting trees closely in large tracts of available lands to make for green cover,” Vanitha says.
Chennai has lost over 99 per cent of its green cover over the past 20 years — and the cyclone has added salt to the wound, says Sundarrajan of the environment group ‘Poovulagin Nanbargal’. He adds, “We need to bring people from all fields — hydrologists, climatologists and other experts — to come together with the government to understand the nature of these
north-east monsoons, which affect only Tamil Nadu — as they brought us devastating loss with the floods last year and the cyclone now. The interest also has to be diverted from imported plant species to native species as they survive for a longer time.” Whether we save these trees or cut them down will potentially decide our future... are you listening, Chennai?
