Hill restored by fruit tree plantation in Tiruvannamalai district

 Hill Restored through fruit tree plantation in Tiruvannamalai

In June 2021, in the blog of Responsible Citizens iYakkam we had elaborated our plans to restore a hill in the road between Melpachar & Mothakkal Villages in Tiruvannamalai district  https://responsible-citizens-iyakkam-trust.blogspot.com/2021/06/hill-tree-rain-tiruvannamalai.html 

To restore the Hill  to total green status we have been interacting with Asst. Project Director (Rural development -TN ) Mr. Lakshmi Narasimhan & Mr. Amrita Raj , Block Development officer, Thandrampattu Block in person, over phone and by letter, Responsible Citizens iYakkam team have been insisting that all the non patta common land on the hill should have complete green cover.   We had also highlighted the importance to the Village Panchayat exceutives,

In between there was a scare & speculation that Govt. of TN is proposing to bring a Industrial estate on this hill.  RCi team and all youngsters of this village sensitized the villagers having a perfect eco system vis-a vis highly polluted industrial units which might have adversely affected the purity of air & threatened availability of water in this already water scarce area.

A drone view of the top angle of the plantation area

MGNREGA workers on job

Trenches cut for water collection

No of times youth have planted tree saplings on this hill in the past. Even RCi had planted seed balls all over the hill in Aug 2018. But shepherds and cowherds regularly grazed this no man's land with their cattle preventing any growth.

See the links below for some of our efforts in the past :

https://responsible-citizens-iyakkam-trust.blogspot.com/2018/08/trees-on-every-hill-project-inauguration.html

https://responsible-citizens-iyakkam-trust.blogspot.com/2018/08/seed-for-change-in-thiruvannamalai-to.html

In this scenario Melpachar Village President Mr. V. Durga Raman happily announced that Government of India & Tamil Nadu has given a go ahead in greening the hills with trees.  For the last few months , He has used many of the village's MGNREGA 100 day scheme workers for planting , watering & fencing the entire zone with thorn bushes to prevent cattle grazing.  Now this hillock has 1400 nos of Tamarind, Jack fruit, Blue berry, Guava & goose berry tree saplings in this hill. Further another 3100 tree saplings are planned to be planted in this hill during the next rainy season.  They have also cut 700 trenches on the water flow path on the hill to collect water on the hill and recharge the ground water. Many TN & Central Government agencies officials have come inspected this area and taking it as a role model to other hillocks in Tiruvannamalai district.

RCi, considers this 1st step in this village as a great step & we feel humbled that every effort we have put in last few years are seeing the light gradually.  We have identified many such root villages in many hillocks spread across Tiruvannamalai district in Tamil Nadu and spreading our campaign in Village Youth and elders and people to take ownership of the hills and all water bodies in the villages to make every village self sufficient with water.

Our Big dream of Trees on Every Hill is blossoming gradually and we seek Responsible Citizens of all villages to come together in Every village to be part of our River Rejuvenation.

In the Years to come, the chill breeze people are going to experience when they pass through this Hillock in Melpachar- Mothakkal road will thank everyone for bringing back divine cooling effects of tree, which itself can transform these hot villages in to cool & Prosperous villages in the future.

We are yet to cover the mothakkal village part of the hillock as most of the lands in this hill on that village panchayat part are having pattas. Hope we will be able to convince those farmers to adopt tree farming.