1,500 saplings grown by Tiruchy prisoner given to NGO

TIRUCHY: Mahendran, a Sri Lankan Tamil, who has been lodged in the special prison here was interested in growing trees and has been maintaining several trees on the jail premises. So, with the permission from the prison officials, he started collecting seeds in and around the prison and started to plant them. Thus, Mahendran managed to collect over 6500 seeds and developed 1500 saplings which he distributed to Thaneer Organisation, an environmental body based in Tiruchy.

“Initially Mahendran contacted us and expressed his interest in sapling plantation on the jail premises. He sought seedling covers so that he could plant seeds and hand them over to our organisation to be planted outside. Impressed by his enthusiasm, we passed on the information to prison officials and they had some appreciative words about Mahendran. So we offered around 1000 bags to him,” recalls KC Neelamegam, working president of Thaneer Organisation.

Neelamegam said, for the past six months, Mahendran was involved in the task and succeeded in growing 1500 saplings of various varieties, including pungai, almond, fig, guava, mango, tamarind and neem. On Tuesday, Mahendran handed over the saplings to the organisation in the presence of Kottapattu camp sub-collector Jamuna Rani, deputy commissioner (cantonment) Baskaran, revenue inspector Ravi.

“These saplings will be planted in educational institutions in and around Ponmalai and Senthaneerpuram. The planting will commence from Wednesday,” said Neelamegam.