Between 2009 to 2011, a number of trees were cut down in Thiruvananthapuram in the name of road development. Those who came out to speak against the same were branded as ‘tree lovers’ and not taken seriously. There was a need for a larger collective of citizens who were concerned about trees, who were more than just an awareness group.
It was with these goals in mind that Anitha Sharma, her sister Santhi, and a few others started Tree Walk in Thiruvananthapuram seven years ago. Over time, they have become a group to reckon with too – their interventions have successfully saved hundreds of trees.
On World Environment Day 2019, Anitha talks to us about Tree Walk.
“We started the group for two reasons – one was in memory of my mother, a Botany professor, Dr Thankam, who loved trees and referred to them often in her conversations. The other reason was to find out if there could be a larger number of citizens who were concerned about trees,” Anitha says.
At first, there were walks in different parts of the city held on Sundays, to understand trees – the rare ones, the blooming ones; the green spaces in colleges and schools and other public spaces. “This was to watch and learn about the biodiversity. We have worked with students of at least 10 schools, where the biodiversity in the campus has been documented by the nature club.”
However, Tree Walk’s work took another dimension when the controversy around Attakulangara school rose. A heritage space, with lots of history, it was founded in 1889. In 2013, the district authorities transferred two acres of the 5.5-acre of the school’s land to TRIDA – Trivandrum Development Authority – to build a shopping complex and a bus terminal there. The government had plans to shift the students to a building in another compound.
Then, Tree Walk intervened.
“There were at least a hundred trees there that would be cut. We ended up going for a legal case. And then others joined the cause, of course. We were able to save the school and its many trees,” Anitha shares. The land was transferred back to the shool in 2013.
Tree Walk has intervened in several other cases since then – the rain tree near the Pallimukku police station in 2013, the manila tamarind near the Hanuman Temple the same year, and recently in 2019, a rare Agarwood tree inside the Thycaud guest house, to name a few. All of them were saved from the axe because of the group’s intervention. Their interventions take many forms including protests, talks, campaigns (online and offline) and in Attakulangara case, even a legal recourse.
“The Tree Walk has evolved from merely conducting walks for awareness to discussing the process for the city’s development. We are in talks with the Collector and the Mayor to develop a tree health card that could say how healthy a tree is. Through a scientific method you could assess the health of a tree and determine if it is healthy, or if it is old and dangerous and should be removed for public safety,” Anitha says.
The Tree Walk has not attempted to plant trees in the city so far but this year they will do that as well. “Not along roads because there is no assurance of how long it would survive. Neither along footpaths where the saplings would be suffocated and have no space to grow. But we could identify some public space where the trees can be looked after. And depending on the climate, determine what all to plant.”
At the government level, the Tree Walk members – who have grown from a meagre 20 to a hundred active members and more on Facebook – are included in several high-level discussions by the Forest Department and the Education Department. “Especially the Education Department, with whom we hold discussions to bring biodiversity parks in schools,” Anitha says.
This World Environment Day, Tree Walk will take children for a name-your-tree walk, have them sing nature songs and take them to an art exhibition in the city.