“We have been receiving over 20 to 25 calls and emails at least for the past two months, compared to a maximum of 10 calls earlier,” says Durgesh Agrahari, Program Manager of SayTrees, to The News Minute. “A sudden increase in temperature calls for a sudden increase in green cover as well,” he says, tagging the extreme weather conditions in the city as one of the main reasons for the fervour. Working closely with corporates, SayTrees is an environmental NGO that has covered a spread of public spaces including lakes and institutions. But this is the first time that the organisation is getting calls increasingly from residents, across the city.
“With the green cover in the city alarmingly depleting, residents do not have any shade to look forward to anymore. There goes their cosy parking space too. Residents have taken to this drive largely because of this,” smiles Janet Yegneswaran, founder of another such NGO in the city, Trees for Free.
Having planted over 200 saplings at the Vasanthanagar area just last week, the NGO has been receiving over 10 calls every day, compared to the 10 calls, they used to get every week, last year! “It all started with a casual WhatsApp conversation, amongst our association, where a discussion about the heat wave in the city, magnified into the need for trees in our vicinity,” says Rajkumar Dugar, the General Secretary of the Vasanthnagar Residents Welfare Association. Symbolic of the 200 residents in the area, the association successfully managed to plant 200 saplings in and around the residency, with the help of the BBMP and Trees for Free.
Ms Yagneswaran also adds that she has gotten the most number of calls from areas in and around Basavanagudi, with some of them also being gated communities. “Only after we inspect the region, checking upon the residents’ interests, we start the process,” she says, speaking about her NGO’s next project in Hanumantha Nagar, where over 1,000 saplings would be planted in the course of the next few months.