The Facebook profile picture of a couple spreading awareness on tree plantation through the Bakul Foundation initiative

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 12: Green warriors in the city have hit the cyber highway to join youth organisation Bakul Foundation’s My Tree Campaign, which has entered its fifth year.

They are creating posters online on “You don’t really need a reason to gift a tree” which shows them holding a sapling and mentioning a funny reason for getting it. This becomes their profile picture on Facebook.

For instance, filmmaker Nila Madhab Panda has this tagline, “I got one for shooting an item number… but you don’t really need a reason to gift a tree”. Another engineering student, Pooja Mishra has her picture saying, “I got one for not shopping too much” and the punchline follows.

The campaign on social media also includes an activity called Treewood, which is basically Tree weds Bollywood, and it requires Facebook users to twist Bollywood dialogues and titles. “Mubarak Ho, Aapke Ghar Pe Ped Hua Hai”, “Kyun Ki Har Ek Ped Zaroori Hai Yaar” and “Hum Ped Laga Chuke Sanam” are some examples.

“Our aim is to gift trees as a cultural practice. By seeing others gifting plants, some people might become inspired and do the same. And if it becomes a cultural practice, people will not plant trees mechanically, but take care of them, especially if it is gifted to them on special occasions. Moreover, when we gift someone a tree, we are asking them to plant it without using any words,” said Bakul founder Sujit Mahapatra.

When the campaign started in 2009, Hriday Ranjan, a volunteer leading it, argued for the slogan of “Abe Sala, Gachha Laga” instead of using the usual clichés. “We did not want people to dismiss this as just another campaign. So, we used strong words as our catchline to drive home the point,” he said.

On Sundays, the volunteers distribute gift-wrapped medicinal plants to residents dropping by the Bharat Petroleum petrol filling station in Chandrasekharpur. The foundation has collaborated with the state forest department for this initiative.

“Every Sunday between 11am and 1pm, we will be distributing medicinal plants from Ekamravan free of cost at this particular petrol pump,” said Mohapatra.

So far, the volunteers have distributed 1,000 saplings this year. “The forest department provides saplings of different species to us and we pass it on to interested individuals to plant or to gift to others. We have also launched a helpline number (9238404040) on which several people have called up asking for a sapling,” he said.

The idea of gifting trees is also promoted by the Green Superhero, Dedi Loku — tree man in tribal language Kui — who goes to schools and public places and endorses the My Tree Campaign.