REAL HEROS: Bus conductor plants trees across TN!

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CNN-IBN / Updated Aug 12, 2011 at 11:29am IST.

Coimbatore: A bus conductor in Tamil Nadu has planted over 1 lakh trees across the state in the last 25 years. The conductor M Yoganathan is known as the Tree Man of the south. Yoganathan is a regular on the S-26 bus that runs on the Marudamalai-Gandhipuram route in Coimbatore. He has been a bus conductor for the past 25 years and is always on the go.

"I can do all these things only because I am a conductor, if I do any other work I have to work for the whole day. In this it's just half a day of work," he said.

His love for nature grew when as a student he would often sit and write poems under the shade of the trees of the Kotagiri forests while visiting his sister. But with this, his intolerance towards those who were destroying the green cover, also grew.

"I used to protest cutting of trees. I would go block the paths of lorries carrying the trees. I used to live in Nilagiri then. Before 1987 there used to be a lot of tea factories there. A huge number of trees from nearby forest areas were hacked down. After 1987, we staged a huge protest condemning these activities," he said.

But even as Yoganathan fought the timber mafia, he knew that the only way to change perceptions was through education.

Yoganathan has visited 2872 schools and colleges in every district of Tamil Nadu. He shows the students his slides, gathered over the years, some gifted to him by wildlife photographers, pictures of rare flowers and plants that are vanishing.

Telling his story, Yoganathan explained, "In carrying out my activities, I rubbed many people the wrong way. Timber traders used to beat me up. People used to pick fights with me for no valid reason. This hurt me so much that I entirely gave up all my activities for a while. But I couldn't stay."

Full Story at,

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/real-hero-bus-conductor-plants-trees-across-tn/175069-3.html

BANGALORE GREEN MURDERS: Brute BBMP power fells trees, people!

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Have you read, “Mayhem of the Miserables!” available @ http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52075

Sunday 3 July 2011 / Deccan Herald.

Steamrolling public opinion on the controversial Sankey road widening project, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Friday axed 17 trees on the picturesque stretch.

Indicating an authoritarian streak, the Palike also got 11 protesting local residents and green activists arrested before the High Court ordered status quo. In a temporary but delayed reprieve for the residents, the court directed the Palike not to fell any more trees—only two of which remain under the project requirement—on Sa­nkey Road until Monday.

Full Story at,

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/173129/brute-bbmp-power-fells-trees.html

BANGALORE GREEN MURDERS: Gritty residents to stall Sankey Road widening!

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Have you read, “Mayhem of the Miserables!” available @ http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52075

Bangalore, June 26, DHNS.

‘Number of vehicles plying does not warrant a wider stretch’

If the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is determined to go ahead with its plans to fell 19 trees in a week to widen Sankey Tank Road, residents and NGOs are no less unwavering in their resolve to stall the project. On Sunday, the agitation against the proposed felling of trees intensified with a series of public meetings and demonstrations. Slamming the civic agency for its “unclear” procedure, the protesters maintained that the project lacked transparency. The campaign against the felling of trees began with a public meeting at Sankey Road at 7 am. Stressing that widening of Sankey Tank Road is not inevitable as the BBMP claims, the campaigners said that traffic had soared on the stretch only after the road between Maramma Temple Junction and CNR Rao Circle was closed for building an underpass. Hence, once the underpass is ready and that road is opened, traffic on Sankey Tank Road would come down, they argued. City Administrations spend hundreds of crores on road-widening activities; but they do not wish to spend a small fraction of a percent of that amount on 'Translocation-of-Trees'! A 'Translocation' of a Tree costs only Rs. 5,000/- to Rs. 15,000/- depending on the girth of the tree rather than the age of it.

But still they would rather choose to fell them, depriving the local ecology of the greenery and the pleasant climes that they afford!

Full Story at,

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/171836/gritty-residents-stall-sankey-road.html