City’s tree cover mapped for and by the people

When the Karnataka government came up with the Rs 1,800 crore Steel Flyover project in Bengaluru, many community and non-profit organisations opposed it for the havoc it would wreak on the environment. While the government said that 812 trees would be felled to make way for the flyover, organisations like Talking Earth conducted tree mapping in the site of the proposed project and found out that more than 2,200 trees will be affected apart from a lake. The data effectively helped to stall the project. Post Cyclone Vardah, which considerably reduced the green cover of Chennai, Talking Earth has extended its tree mapping initiative to Chennai as well. 

“In the last two months, we have covered certain parts in Saidapet. We will eventually move to Anna University. Volunteers will go measure the width and height of each tree and find out its scientific name with the help of an expert, mark the tree as mapped and create a data map with all the details. Had we had such data before Vardah, we would have known what type of trees were lost and replanted them. And tree mapping is a never-ending process. We have to keep going back to the same places after a period to update the data,” says Varun Hemachandran, who founded Talking Earth, after ending his successful advertising career a few years ago. 

Though nobody stops the volunteers from doing their work, a lot of them question them curiously, says Varun. But, isn’t tree mapping the duty of government, which can afford to deploy a huge manpower and create necessary infrastructure for such a perennial process? “The governments do have the data of trees, but different departments have it in parts and in different formats. And the government data is not reliable when it comes to development projects, because they tend to make it sound favourable to them. That’s why we decided to have our own data of trees to be made available to public and NGOs. Apart from tree data, we also collect other details such as socio-economic conditions and predominant means of livelihood in a locality. They can be correlated to understand problems in the area better to find suitable solution. We are not activists and certainly not against governments. We just go by what the data says. In fact, we want to work with governments in whatever way possible,” clarifies Varun, a Chennai boy settled in Bengaluru. 

Having been a debater on UN platforms and invitee to universities has helped Varun to successfully expand Talking Earth to other cities including Delhi. “Very soon, we will launch the initiative in Mumbai as well. We meet people who are already involved in similar initiatives in other cities and rope them in. Also, there is more to Talking Earth than just collecting data, with training and recreational activities,” says Varun.