An assistant scientist at Defence Research and Development Organisation, and five of his friends have taken up an initiative to remove unwanted objects like nails and staple pins from trees in Bengaluru.
Every Sunday, Vinod Kartavya and his friends set out in the streets of Bengaluru to free the trees from posters and advertisements pasted, nailed or stapled on them.
Talking about the initiative, he says, “Recently I was leaning on a tree and a nail sticking out of it hurt the back of my head. I removed the nail and noticed that nearly all the trees in Sampangiram Nagar ward were damaged like this with posters and advertisements. After this, my friends and I decided that we would spend a few hours every Sunday removing the foreign objects,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Talking about the initiative, he says, “Recently I was leaning on a tree and a nail sticking out of it hurt the back of my head. I removed the nail and noticed that nearly all the trees in Sampangiram Nagar ward were damaged like this with posters and advertisements. After this, my friends and I decided that we would spend a few hours every Sunday removing the foreign objects,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“As per the Tree Protection Act and Bangalore municipal Act, sticking posters on trees is illegal. We have also posted a ‘Nail Free Tree’ challenge on social media, encouraging people to post their photos after removing nails from trees. We are getting a good response,” he added.
Last Sunday, they found 1,000 to 2000 staple pins and over 250 nails on a single tree.
“Last Sunday we went to K G Road. Each tree had around 1,000 to 2,000 staple pins and 250 nails. It was a huge task. It took three hours, 7 am to 10 am, just to clean seven trees,” he said, adding that he was hoping that more people would join the movement.