Abused trees nursed by city volunteers get new life

Along the city’s sidewalks, we would have all spotted posters hung onto trees announcing quick passport and credit card services, and information regarding houses available for rent. While the tiny nails that are used to hang these posters may seem harmless for agiant tree, they weaken it over time and invite damaging fungus through the drilled holes. Chennai-based tree conservation NGO, Nizhal, has taken it upon itself to raise awareness among people about the need to free the trees from damaging nails and cables through its campaign.

The group’s volunteer and one of the trustees, Chithra Viswanathan, says, “Not many people are aware that the city Corporation’s order prohibits people from harming trees and the civic body can fine one for doing so. During our tree walks, through which we acquaint people with trees, we observed that many of their trunks were abused by too many nails to hang advertisements and cables. As a result of that, we began the ‘Free the Tree’ campaign to remove the nails and fill the holes with a mix of soil, neem oil and turmeric, so as to avoid fungal growth.”

Driving a nail into a tree is causing it to hurt, says Chithra. “With several nails and staples that are pushed into the tree’s trunk, they tend to weaken. We, as people, complain when the trees fall, but it is this kind of abuse that causes them to fall during natural calamities. A lot of people also put up lights around trees, which produce heat and also affect the tree’s life (as the light tends to impact the tree’s biological clock),” she elaborates.

Armed with hammers and the healing soil mixture, the NGO’s volunteers walk around a locality in the city, removing the posters and nails one by one. “One would think it is an easy task, but it takes a lot of time to tend to each tree. There are sometimes at least 100 nails on a tree, which we have to remove carefully, and close the holes with the soil mixture. To clear just 10 trees of all the banners and nails, it takes us at least 90 minutes,” she shares.

Twenty-three-year-old Hitesh A, a techie working in the city, has been volunteering with the NGO for the past five years. He says the group’s volunteers also hold conversations with locals on how nails hurt trees. “When we call up the numbers mentioned on the posters, some agree to remove them, while many others don’t. So, we speak to shopkeepers, coconut sellers, and people working and living around the locality about abuse of trees, so that they can stop someone from hammering again,” he says.

The group wants to hold the campaign each month and hopes for more volunteers to join, so that more trees can be nursed back to health.