Project Green Hands Ready for Take-off

22 September, 2006

Seven lakh saplings to be planted in State on October 15

Swahilya

CHENNAI: Seven lakh saplings will be planted across the State on October 15, with Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi kicking off the process.

This is the first step towards the planting of 11.4 crore trees by 2017 under Project Green Hands, a project envisaged by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, founder of Isha Yoga Centre, Coimbatore.

Anand, a co-ordinator for the project in Chennai, says that they have begun campaigning in schools about the importance of planting saplings and the consequences of not doing so.

The distribution of a campaign sheet on the project with space for 25 signatures has now been completed in 26 schools.

By the first week of October, the volunteers would have distributed it in 50 schools, he said.
The sheet contains space for 25 signatures of those who have read the details. The person may then contact the volunteers and request saplings.

Vinod Hari, another co-ordinator in Chennai, said that the Isha team spoke to the students about the enrolment of their parents and neighbours as volunteers for the project.

"In Chennai, we have two nurseries in Kodungaiyur, one each at Red Hills, Keelkattalai and Kelambakkam with 1.25 lakh saplings for the city's requirements," he said.

The volunteers are conducting awareness programmes in 40 villages around Chennai. The slogan for the project is 'Enakku Oru Maram, Urukku Oru Mara' (which means 'a tree for me and a tree for the village').

The Forest Department is also helping with the seedlings. Some of the sponsors who have pledged their support to the cause are Orchid Chemicals, ABN Amro, Indian Overseas Bank, GMR Power Corporation and Covanta Energy.