Plant a name to grow a bond

- Fresh green idea for citizen ownership

A.S.R.P. MUKESH

Socialite Poonam Anand with husband Tilak Raj Anand and DFO Rajiv Lochan Bakshi (right) during the green drive on Sunday. Picture by Hardeep Singh Suman, Suraj, Adi, Raman, Arjun, Babu and more. Don’t just plant a tree, plant a namesake. Next time you drive down the 2.5km Jagannathpur-Sai Mandir stretch in Dhurwa, don’t forget to see saplings with names painted on the boards mounted on protective bamboo gabions. In a first of its kind plantation drive organised by the forest department on Sunday, Ranchi residents had the chance to name saplings after themselves or their loved ones. Ranchi divisional forest officer Rajiv Lochan Bakshi explained the concept of allowing people to name saplings. “Plantation is a routine job. But this time the department did some out-of-the-box thinking and let capital residents take lead,” Bakshi said. The concept — advertised on signboards — seemed to have worked. Around 1,000 people from various walks of life, including children and the elderly, attended the programme that went on from 10am to 2pm. “Honestly, we didn’t expect such a big turnout. I guess the personal touch worked. People kept coming, planted saplings and got excited about naming them,” Bakshi said, adding they would try to hold similar Sunday events during monsoon. According to A.T. Mishra, conservator of forests (territorial division, Ranchi, Khunti and Gumla), the department embarked on this “plantation drive with a people connect” with a dual purpose in mind. “First, a person who plants a sapling and names it develops an emotional connect with it. If the person discovers lack of proper maintenance, he or she will raise some hue and cry. Secondly, this is not about just one person, it is about a group. So, a people’s vigilance movement will be created to help the department protect trees in the future,” he said. Though it is too early to predict the future, Sunday’s plantation drive was different from a pure bureaucratic exercise. “I planted two saplings, one for me and one for my unborn child. Since we haven’t decided the name of our child yet, we named a plant Babu,” said Rita Kumar, a 30-year-old homemaker and expecting mother. Five-year-old Anisha Kumar, who came with her grandfather, wasn’t aware of global warming. “I planted a mango tree and I will eat mangoes every year from it,” she giggled. “If we monitor saplings, they should survive with the forest department’s help,” schoolteacher Kishori Yadav added. The department will maintain saplings —fruit and shade bearing species, including gulmohar, mango, peepal, banyan, jackfruit and neem — for three years. “After this period, a tree doesn’t need maintenance and becomes self-sustaining,” Mishra said. Let’s hope this drive doesn’t end like the one barely 1.5km away, on the approach road to the JSCA stadium. In January, around 800 saplings were planted on both sides of the 1km approach road before the India-England ODI on January 19. Seventy per cent saplings have vanished while most gabions are empty or stolen or broken. Will you keep track of a tree you have planted?