Mysuru goes green on World Environment Day

World Environment Day was observed across Mysuru on Friday through a series of tree-planting drives, environmental awareness campaigns and initiatives aimed at protecting the city’s green cover.

A tree-planting programme was organised at Karanji Lake by the BJP’s Mysuru City unit. Union Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who was in the city, inaugurated the drive by planting a sapling.

The event highlighted the importance of environmental conservation as a collective responsibility requiring active public participation. The organisers planted 100 saplings to mark the occasion.

Mysuru-Kodagu MP Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, MLA T.S. Srivatsa and other party leaders participated in the programme. Slogans such as “One tree, one life,” “A green environment is our future,” and “Plant a tree, join hands for a green future” underscored the importance of ecological conservation. Similar tree-planting drives were also conducted at several locations across the city.

Members of Parisarakkagi Naavu, and other organisations, as part of World Environment Day event in Mysuru on Friday, symbolically removed concrete and interlocking tiles around roadside trees. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Parisarakkagi Naavu drive

In a unique initiative, environmental organisation Parisarakkagi Naavu, in association with RLHP and Youth for Sustainability, organised a campaign on the occasion of World Environment Day highlighting the need to protect urban trees. Hundreds of environmental activists, students and citizens gathered in front of SJCE College and symbolically removed concrete and interlocking tiles around 24 roadside trees on the road stretch, to draw the attention of the MCC and the Forest Department.

The organisation, in a release, pointed out that concrete and paving blocks laid around tree bases restrict the flow of water and nutrients to the roots, weakening trees and increasing the risk of them being uprooted during heavy rains. They urged the district authorities to implement National Green Tribunal guidelines mandating at least one metre of open space around trees.

Maj Gen (retd) S. G. Vombatkere, Parashurame Gowda, Bhanu Prashanth, N. S. Rangaraju and others participated.

MCC’s 15,000 saplings

Chamundeshwari MLA G.T. Deve Gowda inaugurated a World Environment Day programme jointly organised by the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) and the Forest Department at Health Layout Park in Ramakrishnanagar. The MCC has proposed to plant 15,000 trees to expand the city’s green cover. Deputy Commissioner G. Lakshmikanth Reddy, MCC Commissioner Sheikh Tanveer Asif and other officials were present.

The MLA, in his address, called upon citizens to safeguard nature and stated that planting even a single sapling could contribute to cleaner air and a healthier future.

The MLA also welcomed the MCC’s decision to plant 15,000 saplings across the city and urged officials, civic workers and residents to ensure the success of the initiative.

While advocating large-scale afforestation, he stressed the need to identify and remove hazardous trees that could pose risks to public safety.