Every morning, V. Babu Shah, makes at least three trips to a decades-old hand pump near the Jain Temple on Ulagappa Street in Chintadripet, and fetches water in bubble-top cans that have a capacity of 10 litres each. He uses the water not for his house, but to nurture the saplings on the streets in his neighbourhood. Watering the plants and planting saplings, especially native species in the locality has been his full-time job since he retired from the auto-spares manufacturing company Ashok Leyland, two years ago. “Being a long-time resident, I saw many trees being chopped in the name of development. So, I started planting saplings and watering them every day,” says 60-year-old Shah. Chintadripet was a weaver’s colony during the British era. At present, the locality has more than 20 streets with a few hundred trees, mostly exotic species. Many trees were cut over the years for residential and commercial purposes. Also, several old and weak trees were uprooted by cyclone Vardah two years ago in December 2016. Empty spaces where once trees stood were converted into parking spaces by residents and commercial establishments. “Sometimes, people prevent me from planting saplings fearing their vehicles cannot be parked there. But I request them to allow me to plant at least one sapling in front of each house,” he says. Saplings of neem, peepal, tamarind, sal, gulmohar, curry, Ashoka and badam trees are planted depending on the availability of space. Most of the saplings are brought from small private nurseries in Nungambakkam and also from Padappai and Tambaram in the city outskirts. In fact, Shah spends nearly half of his monthly pension of ?6,000 to buy saplings. “As my children are working and they support my effort, I am able to continue my pursue my passion with my small pension. My children’s only concern is my health,” Shah says. Over the past two years, he has planted more than 200 trees covering most of the streets in Chintadripet despite suffering two heart attacks. He wants to expand his drive to neighbouring areas, especially Egmore, that have lost many trees due to rapid construction activities. Lack of water is often the only challenge to his drive.

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