Motivated by them, citizens get into the green mission mode

Concerned over the serious threat posed by climate change, a few educated youth of the city came together to organise like-minded people and motivate them to participate in mass plantation drives in the city.

Realising that the trend cannot be reversed unless awareness is created among people, they also started using social media platforms.

The city has witnessed rampant cutting down of trees in the last few years due to boom in construction activity and the demand to expand infrastructure such as roads and bridges. This has led to a drastic fall in groundwater levels with concrete structures obstructing seepage of rainwater into the ground.

Warning signs

“Guntur has already started witnessing the negative impacts of global warming and the time is ripe for us to act now,” said N. S. V. Sarath Chandra, an NIT Rourkela alumnus and a civil service aspirant who has single handedly planted over 100 trees till date and gave the call to improve green cover on a war-footing.

Pointing out to a study published in the journal Nature, according to which urbanisation hived off 35 million hectares of forests between the years 1992 and 2015 across the world, he said: “This is very serious as soil is on the verge of losing fertility and land is witnessing desertification.”

Mr. Sarath Chandra motivated a team of about 50 people, who began planting trees by pooling their own resources. Locations are identified a day before a holiday and the team members arrive at the spot early in the morning. Members work like a well-oiled machine dividing the tasks of digging pits, others transporting saplings and planting them among themselves.

50 % cover the target

“We prefer public places where trees can grow well without any hindrance. We

also make requests to local residents and shopkeepers to water the saplings regularly.

There has been a good response. Our aim is to increase the green cover in Guntur to 50 %,’’ Sudev Nerella, an alumnus of University of Hertfordshire, UK, said.

The team has planted trees along Donka road, Vidyanagar, outer ring road, Mangalagiri road, Ashok Nagar, Pandaripuram, Balaji Nagar and a few locations in Lakshmipuram till date.