Nellore: A Nellore-based civil engineer Syed Abdul Rahim has embarked on a mission to plant five lakh shade and fruit bearing saplings in the next five years by encouraging people to plant the saplings in the premises of their homes.
Determined to contribute his share to contain global warming, he spends his earnings to purchase seedlings and plant them personally in the households of Nellore city free of cost.
Unlike the government sponsored planting programmes, Rahim keeps a track on the condition of the seedling till they survive.
A resident of Kottur village on the outskirts of Nellore city, Rahim runs a construction firm ‘Icon Corporation’ and also provides building plans. In fact he gained entry into Limca Book of Records for preparing a record 1974 building plans in 31 days in 2013.
He has motivated a team of school students to form an association- ‘Tiny Friends Association’ to spread the message about importance of planting saplings.
The team is also assisting Rahim in planting the seedlings during their free time and also keep tabs on the condition of the plants.
With the help of his friends working in IT companies, Rahim has been developing a website for the benefit of the public to approach him for the plants.
“The software being developed will enable us to locate the place and go ahead with the planting with the help of latitude and longitude after those interested upload the location and address,” Mr Rahim said.
He planted more than 1,000 seedlings this year and planning to form more tiny friends associations with school students to speed up the planting during the ensuing monsoon.
He said that he is overwhelmed with the enthusiasm of the students in the activity while expressing confidence in the success of his mission. He said he prefers fruit bearing saplings since they can provide additional income to the poor and middle class while pointing to his exposure to the ordeals of the people with meagre income.
Lamenting over removal of full grown trees for expansion of Podalakur Road in Nellore recently, he alleged that he did not get any cooperation from Roads and Buildings department when he offered to shift the trees along with roots with the help of machinery available in Chennai.
“A thermal power plant near Krishnapatnam agreed to collect the trees to fulfil their mandatory obligation to develop greenery but Roads and Buildings did not react though higher authorities are in favour of the proposal,” Mr Rahim said.
He underlined the need for underground cable system for electricity to put an end to cutting of tree branches on regular intervals to protect the power cables.
He also sought stringent measures against those chopping trees.
