Chennai: A massive project to transplant trees in an effort to speed up Chennai’s greening has been taken up by the city corporation with the long Marina stretch hosting the first 100-odd trees leafing up on the beach by the month end.
Saturday saw the corporation staff transplanting 10 half-grown trees on the three-km stretch from the Labour Statue to the Light House, while a media release said 115 more would be planted before the end of August.
“This is a major greening initiative by the Corporation Mayor as part of our celebrating our CM's birthday. We will turn Chennai into a city of lovely trees within a short time,” gushed a senior corporation official.
Explaining, he said the green project involved in bringing full or half-grown trees from other places that are heavily populated by trees and planting them in different parts of Chennai.
“We are starting with Marina Beach and gradually extend that to other parts of the city. We will encourage private individuals, NGOs and corporate houses to join us in this green initiative,” he said requesting anonymity.
The official said the corporation’s horticulture department was involved in identifying spots to carry out the transplanting of such grown trees. “We will ask the citizens to make sure that they plant their saplings and trees in pits that are at least 3x3 sq ft in dimensions and adequately deep. The trees should be at least ten feet tall so that they could establish roots quickly and grow up,” he said.
