The Green Saviours completes one year of work on Sunday 9th April 2017. The initiative was commenced by a group of people from various walks of life at Belagavi on 10th April 2016.
The weather in Belagavi has been erratic to say the least over the past few years and the failure of the monsoon is uncharacteristic of this wonderful city of ours. Gathering clouds that move on without showering their wet blessings was uncommon in this part of the world. Understanding the fact that one of the major reasons for this occurrence was the depletion of the tree cover in the region, the Green Saviours team was formed with the objective of restoring the climatic glory of Belagavi by planting trees.
The unique feature of the Green Saviours plantation has been the commitment of the team to return to the sites to add manure, clean the weeds, loosen the soil and water the trees in an attempt to conduct maintenance of the saplings that have been planted. While ensuring the survival has been the main focus, the team faced several hurdles in terms of people uprooting the plants, cattle eating the planting saplings and people setting fire to the sites to clear the grass. Despite the threats, the Green Saviours team has ensured the survival of nearly 75% to 80% of the trees planted. Trees that have been lost will be compensated by planting new saplings in the coming rainy season.
By Dec 2016 in over 35 drives, the team had planted 1915 saplings and worked on their survival. The team had also harvested over 700 Mango, Jambool and Jackfruit saplings from roadsides and shifted them into bags for future plantation. However, the realization of not being able to do enough dawned upon the team of 70+ dedicated members and they decided to take the activity to a whole new level.
To assist and to be a member of the Green Saviours team, contact: Cell: 09611313919
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.greensaviours.org
Since December 2016, in addition of maintenance of the sites, the team has moved on to the Miyawaki method of plantation. They have planted two mini forests, one each of 400+ and 800+ trees at the Shantai Old Age Home and the PWD campus at Fort, respectively. Buoyed by the success of these two sites, the Green Saviours team will be undertaking a Mega Plantation on 16th April 2017, wherein they will be planting 3300 trees on a single day. The number equals the total number of trees planted by the team in their first year of operations.
The Green Saviours team which works on a no-formality mode of operations and has worked non stop for 52 Sundays in a row, would like to appeal to residents of Belagavi at large to join the plantation efforts. The plan for the upcoming year is at least 50000 trees if not more in the mini forest mode. While the team is thankful to the unconditional support from the Department of Forestry, they also wish to reach out to individuals and corporates in and beyond Belagavi to support them with funds for their mini forest sites.