‘Stem’ plantation to restore lost green cover

The members of Tiruvaur based environment group ‘Vanam,’ which has been propagating the importance of the green cover across the state, started planting over 100 stems of three species like Aalam (Banyan tree), Lannea coromandelica (Odhiyam) and Indian tulip tree (Poovarasu) in Tiruvarur town. They are using the stems of the fallen trees littered across the landscape and utilising the monsoon to enable the stems to sprout again soon.

They also urged the youth from the adjacent districts to follow the technique to revive the green cover fast in the region.

According to them, unlike the other plants, the species like Banyan tree (Aala Maram), Indian tulip tree (Poovarasu), Lannea coromandelica (Odhiyam), Itchi, Kalyana Murugnai, Vadha Narayana could be restored by the stem propagation method.

“We have collected these stemsfrom the fallen trees where our team members had gone for restoration work in the cyclone affected areas,” Vanam Kalaimani, the founder of the organisation told DT Next.

Kalaimani said that the branches of a few species of such trees fell during the cyclone were cut into pieces of around 6-7 feet high and planted. “We just follow the traditional method by applying dung on the top which was cut off from the tree and thus collected at least 50 stems from one species and the matured branches would be better than the tender ones for these types of plantation,” he explained.

He also said, if saplings of tree are planted, it would take 10 years to mature, however if the stems are planted it would become a full grown tree by two years. By adopting this method at least a portion of the lost green cover could be recovered in the Delta districts, he claimed.

He exhorted the youth in the villages to adopt this method. “Though the youth were upset due to the losses, they should come forward to rejuvenate the region for the coming generations and this is the apt time to step up this type of plantation so that we could recover a certain per cent of green cover in the Delta region and thus the green cover may be restored to some extent,” Kalaimani noted.