The city has grown too familiar to stories of rampant felling of trees and the latest to make headlines were the one about 115 trees in Whitefield which were marked for felling for carrying out the metro project. But even while urbanisation is gobbling up the ‘garden city’, this true blue Bengalurean makes sure that the left green patches in the city remains unperturbed. Vijay Nishanth, the tree doctor or urban conversationalist, as he likes to put it, has dedicated his life to nurture and preserve every scrap of green remains. As the name signifies, ‘the tree doctor’ goes around curing wounded trees, applies bee wax, orange oil and nutrition water on the trunk of trees and saves them. He is currently focusing on the transplantation of the 115 trees at Whitefield, thereby preventing the felling of trees and transplanting them to the premises of a city based hospital.
“The city has a very rich conserve of trees compared to places like Singapore or Mexico where you can find just four or five species of trees. There are as many as 85 species of trees identified in Bengaluru,’’ says the tree doctor who loves the city not just for the green cover, but also for its Kannada style biryani and bisi bele bath.
In the 2010, Vijay began working as a full time urban conservationist cum animal activist and started a venture titled Vruksha, which is a one-stop solution for ooreans to identify or seek help in reviving trees, preserving them and counter tree felling. “We have a digital mapping system and through tree mapping and tree tagging, we keep track of trees in Bengaluru. It’s very important that we maintain a tree data, which makes it easy to monitor and create an awareness,’’ states Vijay, adding, “It is shocking to see people cut down trees for reasons like excess shedding of leaves or because the trees occupy potential parking spaces. Sometimes trees are even poisoned!’’
Vijay had been working as a volunteer for Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP)’s forest cell for over a decade. And the journey has enabled Vijay to bring about sustainable changes in Bengaluru’s dwindling ecosystem – through both physical and technological means.
“My biggest dream is to create more tree doctors in India, for the country and expand the digital mapping of trees all across the nation,’’ concludes Vijay who is now focusing on his project Vruksha and solitary bees.
