Youth sows Vellore suburbs with seed balls for more green cover

A Vellore native, Dinesh, revealing this to DT Next, said “socially relevant work resulted in my being invited to address a seminar on the environment at the Gandhinagar Auxilium College for Womenon July 26.”

It may be recalled that Dinesh shot into the limelight when he collected Rs 37,000 to provide a BPL (below poverty line) widow with a toilet some months ago. This was followed by his Vellore-based group identifying the poorest in the Sathuvachari area and then providing three such families with groceries for three months free.

When the water crisis hit Vellore last month, Saravanan and his friends were in the forefront providing the most affected Saidapet and old town areas with three tractor loads of water for free. The water suppliers refused payment when they found that the youth were undertaking this initiative on their own.

Last weekend, saw the youth group attempt to green the hills surrounding Vellore by strewing 500 seed balls on the Chenganatham hills in Vellore and on Sunday the group covered all areas from Perumugai on the Vellore-Bengaluru national highways to Thorapadi near the Vellore Central Prison, Otteri lake as also the campus of the Muthurangam Government Arts College, Virupatchipuram and Sainathapuram areas were all covered with 1,000 seed balls.

“We prepared seed balls along with other groups inside the Vellore fort some months ago and when the seed balls were distributed, our group was also provided with the seeds,” Saravanan said. As the town is experiencing rain now, all hope that the seeds will take root and result in increasedgreen cover.

Meanwhile, Dinesh said, “We plan to do the same for other uncovered areas inside Vellore townnext weekend.”