A tree’s change of address

Parul Agrawal

Around a month ago, Delhi saw a revised version of the Chipko movement. Hundreds of residents of the Capital took to the streets to protest against the scheduled cutting of more than 14,000 trees. This was done for the redevelopment of a few areas in the city that reportedly needed a makeover.

A month later, thanks to public protest and legal intervention, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has been asked to revisit the layout plan and figure out ways to transplant the trees instead of cutting them. While the citizens and the government officials have rejoiced the idea, the decision has not gone down too well with the conservationists and tree experts.

Critics say that transplantation is a process that requires expertise, time and patience. Determining factors like weather conditions and suitable climate also play a part. The survival rate is directly impacted by these. “Most trees cannot survive transplantation, particularly the big-old ones. The success rate is extremely low,” says CR Babu, professor emeritus, Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems. 

Transplanting trees is an expensive affair and not many in India can claim to be an expert at the meticulous process. The survival depends on the consistent care of uprooted trees and a lot of complementary factors that are difficult to control. The success rate in certain cities in India has been as low as 2 per cent. Despite all odds, citizens, environmental activists and tree experts across India are increasingly getting together in favour of tree transplants. In other words, with higher costs and lower success rates, can tree transplantation emerge as a feasible mid-way solution to the reducing green cover in India?

One stem at a time 

Ramchandra Appari from Hyderabad, who started a private horticulture firm in 2010, claims that his company has successfully translocated more than 9,500 trees to date. Appari's firm has assisted Hyderabad metro rail project, Pune metro and a couple of other highway projects in transplanting trees that were scheduled to be chopped.  

“Tree transplantation is a fairly new thing in India. People watch videos of huge trees being lifted and planted abroad and they want the same to be replicated here. In India, half of those things don't work. So, it is challenging, but by no means impossible.” 

Appari’s firm is one of the many private companies in India that are trying to venture into the tree transplant market to make the process of environmental conservation sustainable and profitable. The market is growing. However, not a single research institute or agricultural university in India offers knowledge, expertise or courses, teaching technicalities of tree transplants. Almost everybody in the field is learning by experience and foreign literature that is available online.  

“Indian soil is different, so are our weather conditions. India has different varieties and species of trees. There is very less that we can learn from foreign examples,”  adds Appari. Government officials are still not aware of transplantation techniques and a lot of contracts are given to the firms that are not competent enough, leading to poor success rates. 

Rahul Mahajan, a resident of Chandigarh, has transplanted more than 120 trees, entirely with his own expertise and money. Mahajan believes that transplantation cannot be the substitute for indiscriminate cutting of trees. It is though the best available solution for saving trees that are older and of rare species.    

Mahajan says that he has mostly transplanted trees that were old and abandoned. These were either blocking a construction  site, or decaying, or got uprooted due to weather. “The success rate for most of tree transplantations done by me has been more than 85 per cent, and the reason is meticulous pre and post care.” 

He states that the biggest challenge is the short notice that is given to the experts for starting the process. “Preparing the tree for transplant involves various processes and treatments. Those who approach want the tree to be uprooted in the next few days. This affects the chances of survival.”  

Making a mark 

In December last year, a group of citizens and a ‘tree doctor’ in Bengaluru came together to save 115 trees that were marked to be cut for the Metro rail construction in the Whitefield area. Ram Kanala, a software professional from Bengaluru, ran from pillar to post and persuaded metro corporation to donate its machinery and Satya Sai Hospital in Bengaluru to mark space for transplanted trees. The stakeholders collectively took up the task of post-transplant tree care.  

Six months later, the trees came alive. Mission Green Century as it was named is the first instance in India of over100 trees successfully transplanted in an entirely citizen-led initiative at the one-fourth cost.

“What makes this initiative rare is how citizens and different stakeholders came together to make it a success. If cost and success rate are the reasons we let the trees die an untimely death in India, Mission Green Century has proved there is an alternate solution,” says Vijay Nishanth, an urban conservationist and a ‘tree doctor,’ who is known for reviving and rejuvenating the ‘dead trees in Bengaluru.

A concerted effort

The average cost for a tree transplant is anywhere between Rs 10,000 to Rs 90,000, depending upon the number of trees and their age. There is no legitimate data available about the number of trees transplanted in India and their survival rates, but in most cases where government authorities have transplanted trees in exchange for the permissions to remove them, the trees have died due to lack of long-term care and a sense of ownership. Private companies led and run by environmentalists and subject experts have shown better results, but the commercial costs of tree transplants are still very high. It is this dynamic that can change if various stakeholders come together for a green cause.

“The real activists are the people who can make a lot of impossible possible if they come together. If corporates, government machinery and activists get together, tree transplantation costs would reduce and success rates would double,” says Nishanth, hoping that more people in India look at trees as a crucial asset.