magic fingers

● Nrupesh Kumar Nayak has planted 9,804 trees in 18 wards of BMC in 2009 ● 8,731 trees he planted in 2009 survive ● He plans to plant 20,000 saplings in the remaining 42 wards in 2010-11 ● His 25-member team of volunteers has created eight medicinal plant gardens ● Real Estate Development Association has collaborated with his team for plantation projects ● Ashoka, kadamb, amla, nageswar, chandan, and maricha are among the trees he is going to plant in 2010-11

Bhubaneswar, July 9: The chief minister might have announced a massive state-sponsored plan of planting 30 lakh trees in the state and four lakh in its capital, but a young man’s determination to turn the city green would perhaps inspire many to follow suit.

With rising temperature, depleting ground water level and desertification in many parts of the state, this young politician has taken up a mission to change the environment around us.

Nrupesh Kumar Nayak, a councillor of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) from Nageswar Tangi in the Old Town area, thinks that planting trees is the only way we can change our society and ensure a sustainable future. He claims to do what other green activists and planters just forget after the afforestation drives. “Most of them forget the saplings after planting them, but I stress post-plantation care in a planned manner so that maximum saplings can survive to see the light of the day,’' he said.

Nayak had planted 9,804 trees in 18 wards of the corporation last year, of which 8,731 are now surviving. Apart from creating eight medicinal plant gardens and several avenue plantation patches with his team of 25 volunteers of Green World Trust (GWT), he has plans to plant 20,000 saplings in the rest 42 wards of the BMC during 2010-11. The eight medicinal plant gardens he created are located near Palaspalli, near police camp, at Gandamunda Square (Ashok Vatika), at IRC Village (Ekamra Medicinal Park), near Central Reserve Police Force Gate, at Chandrasekhar Pur (Rail Vihar), near IRC Government High School (Green Medicinal Garden) and near Mausima Temple.

His new sapling plan would include varieties with thick leaves and more foliage to fight the sun, and provide greater canopy cover, so that the city would remain cool in the scorching summer. “For now, the plantation activities would be focused in the city, and later, would spread to other regions on the outskirts, and, in future, to other pockets of the state,’’ said Nayak.Nayak collects donations from friends, industrialists, property developers, and well-wishers to implement the green programmes. “We had never taken a single rupee from the state government for our plantation initiatives,’’ he said. “Our saplings have more than 90 per cent of survival ratio’’, Nayak claimed, adding, “things would be more effective if support is provided by the state government”.

“But, people have extended their helping hands suo motu’’, he added. Recently, the Real Estate Development Association has resolved to take up an initiative with Nayak’s team so that all the plantation work in the projects of the association would be taken up by him, Nayak said.“With plans to emphasise on quality planting materials, species like ashoka, kadamb, amla and nageswar, bahada, khaira, karanj, chandan, rakta chandan and maricha will top our list this year for the plantation programme,’’ he added.