A student removes a placard from a lamp post as part of the Tree20 drive. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

Shivang Churiwala knows what he will do on weekends during summer vacation, a month before the holiday starts.

The president of the nature club of La Martiniere for Boys is aiming to devote three hours every weekend to remove placards nailed to trees around his school as part of a campaign called Tree20.

The drive started on Saturday with Shivang and 15 other students ripping off nearly 50 placards and banners from trees on Loudon Street, Rawdon Street and Shakespeare Sarani.

Shivang is not alone. Hundreds of students of classes X, XI and XII from around 25 city schools, including St James, La Martiniere for Boys and La Martiniere for Girls, will take part in Tree20, a movement to remove placards, posters and banners fixed to trees on 20 arterial roads.

“This is the first sustained movement against pollution and for protection of trees by citizens who have been let down by the authorities. The fact that the movement is being led by school students shows youngsters are aware of environment issues,” said environment activist Mudar Patherya.

Tree20 follows Save Southern Avenue 2009, a drive to remove plastic and paper waste from Southern Avenue, and Pride of Park Circus 2009, a campaign to clean Park Circus Maidan.

A green army consisting of 100-odd young residents has collected and disposed of 20,810kg waste from Southern Avenue, Park Circus Maidan and Brigade Parade Ground. Over 700 placards hammered into trees and fixed to electricity poles on Southern Avenue and Sarat Chatterjee Road have also been taken of.

“Visual pollution is increasing with advertisements being nailed to tree trunks. The trees are bleeding but nobody can see it. Just because they cannot speak about their agony, does not mean we should subject them to such torture,” said Churiwala.

According to civic rules, trees should be free of polluting or damaging material. Lack of manpower is an impediment to keeping trees free of placards.

Civic officials estimate that there is green cover over 9 per cent of the 187sq km municipal area.

“Our people go around removing advertisements from trees but they return before long,” said an official of the park and gardens wing of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation.