Children taking the lead in planting saplings near Vellalore tank as part of the sapling planting drive initiated by the Kovai Kulangal Pathugapu Amaipu on Sunday. | Photo Credit: S_SIVA SARAVANAN more-in Eachanari resident N. Ganesh along with a few of his friends was in Vellalore on Sunday morning to participate in the sapling planting drive organised by the Kovai Kulangal Pathugapu Amaipu (KKPA) near the Vellalore tank. At the end of the three-hour-long exercise, he had planted a little over 10 saplings. “When I placed the saplings in the pits that were kept ready and pushed the nearby earth to fill the pits, I felt very satisfied as I was thinking how birds would nest in the trees and feed on the fruits.” A native of Chennai, Mr. Ganesh says it did not matter to him if it was his home town or Coimbatore because a good deed was good deed and, “yaadhum oore yavarum keleer (all towns are one and all humans are kin).” There were over 200 volunteers like Mr. Ganesh who were there at the Vellalore tank on Sunday morning and over 50 of those were children, said R. Manikandan, organiser, KKPA. Mr. Manikandan said the KKPA had by 10 a.m. planted 1,001 saplings, most of which the organisation sourced from Isha Green Hands and a few nurseries in the city. The saplings were of native varieties – nila vembu, siru nelli, peru nelli, pungan, iluppai, vanni and many more. The organisation had kept the pits ready for the Sunday’s programme by digging them in advance. The KKPA volunteers had planned it a month ago in such a way that they had dug a number of pits on a 15- feet-wide and 350-feet-long stretch of land near the tank. After preparing the land, the volunteers had placed dried water hyacinth that was taken from Valangulam tank and sprinkled with cow dung solution. This was to make the land ready for nurturing the saplings, Mr. Manikandan said. The KKPA had undertaken a similar sapling plantation drive in February this year by planting nearly as many saplings as they did on Sunday. “The saplings that the volunteers planted when they were six inches tall, had now grown to four to seven feet.” The organisation had fenced the land and had engaged a worker who would water and nurture the saplings. A sponsor had supported them with a bore well, which should soon start yielding water, he added. The over-all cost of the initiative worked out to around ? 2 lakh, which the KKPA was able to manage with the help of donors from Atlanta, U.S. Asked why the organisation chose the Vellalore tank, Mr. Manikandan said it was one of the oldest tanks in the region, but had remained dry for several years. The objective was to revive the tank and protect the ecology.

Stay updated with all the Coimbatore Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.