Dehradun: An ongoing struggle common among many of Dehradun's environmental organisations and nature lovers in the city, is that of rescuing an age-old tree in the Defence Colony area of the city. The sycamore in concern is a peepal tree believed to be nearly 200 years old. The urgency is that of time as organisations and individuals concerned look to gather funds in lieu of the Forest Department's decision to fell the tree.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, Dr Anchal Sharma, Founder of The Earth and Climate Initiative, the collective spearheading efforts to transplant the tree, said, "Recently we got to know that the old Peepal tree in Defence Colony is going to be felled. We requested the authorities to give us 15 to 20 days so that we could transplant this to another spot about 200 meters away. The local residents, too, supported this".
The task is a herculean one. The activists so far have raised Rs 17,000 of the required Rs 2 lakh. Machines required for the task including JCBs, Pokeland, and trailers have to be arranged in time. "The machines, especially the crane, required for the job were not available in Uttarakhand. It was coming from South India. So, we had to wait a couple of weeks for it to get here. We are doing this by taking help from the Vata foundation based in Hyderabad, which has already transplanted close to 3,000 trees successfully.
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But we still do not have the funds, and are running on limited time," Sharma explained. The organisation has also set up a donation page for the transplantation process. Meanwhile, Dehradun's Divisional Forest Officer Nitish Mani Tripathi said that the department had agreed to the plea, keeping in mind the age of the tree.
"The house of a local resident is being constructed in the Defence Colony. For his convenience of movement, he asked for the tree to be cut down. However, we were approached by a group of environment lovers who requested some time, saying they would transplant the tree. We have accepted, and hope the tree can be transplanted within the given time frame," he stated.
