Tree Guardians
The easiest thing is to plant the saplings. But the real work is in protecting, watering and nurturing the saplings. In this regard the Exnora Green Cross members should motivate the residents nearby to be Tree Guardians and request them to adopt one or two tree saplings. The duties of the Tree Guardians will be to water, fertilise, remove weeds and shrubs and protect saplings. In addition, if they are willing, they can also sponsor the cost of tree guards and saplings.
The children can be designated as Tree Guardians. Their name as Tree Guardian as well as the name of the sapling (including the Botanical name) with the date of planting can be written and tied either to the tree guard or the sapling. It will indeed be an exciting experience for the parents to watch the children grow and through their children the plants grow.
Tree Planting – Your First Duty to the Mother Earth
Members should spend their leisure time in helping to carry out Saving the Earth Exercise by planting trees and alloting a couple of hours on Sundays and holidays for this work.
Residents who celebrate their birthdays and wedding days (wedding anniversaries) can be encouraged to plant saplings on those days, making the occasion more memorable. Even Exnora members can give tree saplings as a Birth Day Gift. (The sapling however should be planted by the Exnora member or he should facilitate its planting). If every citizen plants trees on his birth day, global warming will stop within a few years. Important days like New Year, Republic Day and Independence days can be celebrated by Tree planting. Any meeting can commence with the planting of trees (like the prayer). Marriage rituals can begin with planting trees. Trees can be planted in memory of the deceased, even in burial grounds. Songs about trees can be written, composed and sung as a group.
Tree guards can be obtained through sponsorship. Business houses can be approached and requested to sponsor the tree guards. The benefits of doing so has to be explained to them (a) Service to nature and (b) Increasing publicity and consequently the goodwill they will receive from others. The tree guard will bear the Company’s name on a broad board fixed on the tree guard. (Once the trees out-grow the tree guards, they do not need the protection of the guards anymore and the same can be removed and reused by re-erectiing it for a new sapling). This exercise can be repeated any number of times till the tree guard is completely worn out. Cheaper tree guards should be used (like nil cost-Thorn Tree Guard). Grown up saplings also can be planted. This does not require you to investment in tree guards. You can avoid spending money to buy tree guards and carry on a large scale tree planting inside the residential compounds, walled cities and fence the industries.The tree saplings can be obtained from the Forest Department, the Municipal Body and Exnora Tree Bank if you have one in your centre. For the industries it is an opportunity to correct and compensate the damage done by their chimneys.
The Exnora Green Cross members can visit the industries and advise them to plant trees. They can inspect and give a plan. With their permission the members can do the tree planting themselves. They can involve the employers and the workers. They can be given the responsibility to adopt and water the trees. They can be requested to plant trees on their birthday and wedding anniversary and to nurture the plants thereafter.
The Exnora Green Cross should take this up with all the schools and the Education Departments for including the subject of trees and about tree planting in their curriculum. Painting competition, essay writng competition and speech competition on the subject of Trees can be conducted.
