Setting an example worthy of emulation, authorities of the NIFT-TEA College of Knitwear Fashion in Tirupur on Thursday gave life to two 75-year-old roadside trees by taking steps to replant them on the campus.
The intertwined Bodhi and Neem trees would have otherwise fallen prey to an infrastructure project and ended up in timber depots. The effort is seen as a much-needed lesson in environmental conservation in an age when urban infrastructure development is eroding greenery on the roads.
Originally, the Highways Department had planned to axe the trees for constructing a subway across the railway track at TMF Hospital Junction on Uthukuli Road to provide easy connectivity to the Fabrication Road. The Uthukuli Road is presently prone to traffic congestion.
Although work on the subway had commenced two years ago, only recently it decided to axe the trees leading to protests.
A 10 km journey and 15 hours of hard work is what it took to relocate a ‘Platinum Jubilee’ Bodhi and Neem tree in Tirupur, which were all set to the face the axe, on Thursday.
When the Highways Department wanted to fell the trees, which were intertwined by nature it evoked stiff opposition from environmentalists and the public. Incidentally, both the tree species hold spiritual significance for the Hindus.
Responding to the sentiments of the local people, the authorities of the NIFT-TEA College of Knitwear Fashion offered to safely uproot the trees and replant them on the college premises. The college obtained permission from the Southern Railway authorities for the same as the trees were located on a road belonging to the latter.
The process began at around 6 am on Thursday. “A team of engineers from Siva Pipelines Limited were engaged in the process. The company deployed three cranes and an earthmover free of cost. Nearly 150 people were involved in the entire process of uprooting, transporting and replanting the trees,” NIFT-TEA College chairman Raja M Shanmugam said.
Hundreds of curious onlookers thronged the spot to watch the never before seen spectacle. The uprooting process took nearly nine hours. The trees were then loaded on to trucks and taken on 10 kilometers journey to the college premises at Mudhalipalayam by late evening. The journey from Uthukuli Road to Mudhalipalayam was also not an easy one. The truck driver found it hard to negotiate turns and avoid brushing against electric poles. Along the route people gathered at various spots to perform poojas for the ‘holy trees’.
It reached the campus late in the evening where two pits measuring seven-foot deep and 15-foot long were dug up for planting the trees. A team of employees from the Department of Agriculture were at hand to help in replanting the trees.
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