Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment

(M. Mathivanan and R.Ganesan)

ACCC has a spacious nursery of plants for fodder, medicine, fuelwood and timber. Currently, there are 6000 plants of various age groups comprising of 56 species. The purpose of the nursery was to distribute free saplings among the target villages of Zamin Singampatti, Ayan Singampatti, Indira Colony, Papankulam and Moolachi to green these villages and build a bio-resource base for people to use. Saplings are also planted in public places such as educational institutions, temples, churches, mosques, hospitals and along roadsides. We provided saplings to Panchayat, local NGOs, police battalion etc. More than 15,000 saplings were distributed over a period of 8 years across 3000 households in these villages.

ATREE also encourages others NGOs who do similar work, since survival of saplings under their care was high; an example of which is TREE Trust, which has carried out a number of tree planting programmes in collaboration with ATREE in the surroundings of Kallidaikurichi. Another NGO called POIHAI Trust conducts meetings for farmers, encouraging them to take up organic farming and plant trees with ATREE’s help.