Saalumarada Thimakka

World Environment Day

Bengaluru

Rajanet Yegneswaran

Janet Yegneswaran’s tree-planting mission began in Sept 2005 when she lost her husband

The honge tree near her home

Some people want to plant saplings on their birthdays or special occasions. A teenager approaches us every year to plants 111 saplings on her birthday –Janet Yegneswaran

By Y Maheswara ReddyEjipura’s ‘’ has plantedd 73,000+ trees so far in her husband’s memoryOn June 5, 2006, she planted a honge tree near her house in memory of her husband. Today, 13 years later, on, the 68-year-old Janet Yegneswaran sits down to admire the majestic tree, which started her off on a mission that is now impacting the planet. To date, Janet has planted 73,000 saplings inand in other parts of Karnataka. And it all began by planting saplings in her neighbourhood.If all goes well, Janet, a resident of Ejipura in south Bengaluru, is all set to reach the milestone of planting 75,000 saplings in a few days.“It’s a proud moment to see the honge sapling planted by me, grow into a tree, near my house,” says Janet.Janet’s tree-planting mission began in September 2005 when she lost her husband, RS Yegneswaran. “That was the time when Bengaluru was seeing large scale felling of trees for development. Since I felt very passionately for the loss of tree cover in Bengaluru, my friends suggested I do a dharna. But I felt I wanted to do something a little more productive. I formed theCharitable Trust in memory of my husband and decided to take up planting of saplings in the neighbourhood.”Janet knew that if she wanted to build scale, she would have to do much more than plant saplings in her own garden. It would mean involving the community. So she and a few volunteers, went around the neighbourhood asking people if they would be willing to look after saplings planted on the road. “The response was lukewarm.While some agreed, others did not support me. But I did not give up,” says Janet.Green thumb: Luckily for Janet, her experience of working as a landscape designer at the Sri Kanteerava Stadium for a few years, stood her in good stead. She had domain expertise in picking the right kind of saplings depending on the area in which they were going to be planted. She began planting saplings in 2006 and continues till today. But she has gone beyond the neighbourhood and forayed into parts of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu too.“Many saplings have grown into trees at many locations in Bengaluru,’’ she says, proudly. Apart from planting thousands of saplings at areas such as Krishnarajapura, Pai Layout, Begur, Electronics City, Tataguni, Talgatpura, Cambridge Layout, Koramangala, Jakkur Cross and other places in Bengaluru, Janet has played a key role in planting around 5,000 saplings in Tumakuru and Chikaballapur districts.“We are ready to plant saplings at any place across the state if there is a request from anyone,” she says.Presently, arrangements are being made to plant 1,000 saplings in Coorg and 1,000 coconut saplings in Thanjavur district in Tamil Nadu. “Our project Thengaja involves planting 1,000 coconut saplings for delta farmers of Thanjavur affected by Cyclone Gaja. We are collaborating with Citizens for Awareness, for this project.They have identified 100 poor families and we will plant 10 coconut saplings for each family,’’ says Janet.Many corporates like KPMG, Sony, Samsung and Nokia, etc., have sponsored the planting of saplings at places selected by them. “We get some money from corporates to plant saplings in the campus or at selected locations. When residents and farmers want to plant saplings, we do it free of cost,” she says.However, residents have to prepare the pits to plant the saplings that we provide and promise to look after them. “The objective is to make the residents take ownership of the plants. We only plant saplings if the residents assure us that they will water and look after them,” says Janet.In the beginning Janet would buy saplings with her own money but now, as her projects have gotten bigger, she depends on people’s donations. But there’s more than just money changing hands. “Some people want to plant saplings on their birthdays or special occasions. A teenager approaches us every year to plants 111 saplings on her birthday. This has been happening for a few years. Her father gives us Rs 300 per sapling.”Janet, who plants all kinds of trees like Akash mallige, honge, neem and other varieties, also runs a nursery near the BDA Shopping Complex at Domlur. But it is not without troubles. “There is no water supply for the nursery. It is a 80 X 50 site which has been given to me by a patron. I pay no rent but since there is no water I buy water for the plants. I would like the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) authorities to allocate land for the nursery at a suitable location. Former minister Ramalinga Reddy had directed the BBMP authorities to allot land but it was not suitable for a nursery,’’ she says.As she greens the planet one tree at a time, you could take a leaf out of Janet’s book and do the same.