ECG - Orientation Session - 2015

Environment Care Group (ECG) team had a Orientation session on July 19. The session happened with the following agenda:

1. The event started with following Video Clippings:
   1. Speech of President Barack Obama in UN's Climate Summit 2014.
   2. Speech of Actor and Peace Messenger Leonardo DiCarpio in UN's Climate Summit 2014.
   3. Documentary on Jadav Payeng, the Forest man of India.
2. Inspiring speech by our Dynamic volunteer Gowtham on `Why we should care for Nature?`
3. Briefing on all the activities in Team ECG.
4. Arun Prasad gave an overview of achievements of the team in last 1 year.
5. Break.
6. Video on M. Yoganathan, Tree Bank of South India.
7. Detailed briefing of sapling followup process.
8. Discussion on Field Visit and Tree Album ideas with Action Plan.
9. Zone leads Registration.
10. Feedback / Suggestions.
11. National Anthem.

Thanks to the following green warriors for attending the session and taking up `Zone lead` roles as follows:

1. Pavithra - Adyar
2. Surya - Valasaravakkam
3. Arun - Teynampet
4. Gowtham - Tondiarpet
5. Saiyasodharan - Alandur
6. Sanjai Kutty - Pallavaram Municipality
7. Jaffer - Ambattur
8. Bharathi - Valasaravakkam
9. Swetha - Adyar
10. Kirubhakaran - Thiru Vi Ka Nagar
11. Sowmiya - Anna Nagar
12. Dinesh - Alandur
13. Akshayaa - Kodambakkam
14. Yeshvant
15. Rajendran Selvamani
16. Prithviraj

Zonal leads for following zones still open:

1. Tiruvotriyur.
2. Manali.
3. Madhavaram.
4. Royapuram.
5. Perungudi.
6. Sholinganallur.

"We are the first generation to feel the Climate change and we are the last generation to do something about it."

 - President Barack Obama, UN Climate Summit 2014.

Links:

1. Chennai Zonal Map - http://chennaicorporation.gov.in/images/MAP_ZONE_WARD.jpg

Sapling Plantation in VIP colony at Uthandi

Why should the Schools or the Corporates or the NGO's alone be a part in taking steps to make Our Mother Earth greener ? Why not the residential areas??

Yes, this time the plantation was done in the residential area in Uthandi. A person who came up with the idea of planting trees in the area, with his friends, contacted our Environmental Care Group to execute the plan of make his area more greener.

The event started at 8.30 a.m. Our volunteers unpacked the saplings, tree guards and other items.
We were divided into groups, one to dig the pit, another to prepare the tree guards and the rest were engaged in planting the saplings and to water it. 

Once the work of digging the holes and preparing the tree guards, which was started simultaneously, got over, we planted the saplings and placed the tree guards which was of two and a half feet height to protect them from the cattles. We planted 26 tree saplings of four different kinds.

It took 6 hours to complete the work and finally it ended at 3 p.m.

Thanks to the volunteers Surya, Sakthi, Gowtham, Akshyaa, Pavithra Murugan, Laxamanan, Sowmiya, Rajesh, Guru, Raja, Arun, Dinesh, Vinodhini, Aneesh, Ramesh and Ram.

This wouldn't be possible without the Yes Bank and our CSS Volunteer, Krupakaran who supported us financially in buying the saplings, tree guards and providing the refreshments to the volunteers.

And special thanks to the localites who helped us from the very beginning till the end in this plantation.

A snap from the event

Check the below link for more snaps
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.983653924987741&type=1&l=61b8b72a0b

Happy Birth Day Sakthi

As part of ECG, we usually deliver saplings to birthday parties, where numerous guests attend the party and few interested people take the saplings.

But today, its a completely unique and different experience. Sakthi's whole day, the whole party, the whole event revolved around visiting all his friends and giving them a sapling to make their home green and their air clean☁. He took this day off and the only thing he did today was visiting his friends' home and distributed saplings to them.

Wow, Sakthi. We are honored by your presence in the team and glad to volunteer with you 

He has been celebrating his birthday in the same way for past 4 years starting with 10 saplings and today its 100 saplings 

Wish you a very happy green birthday and an awesome year ahead 

Keep inspiring us, Sakthi :)

Thanks to Surya, Mohan anna of Isha for their support in delivering the sailings to Sakthi 

Sapling Distribution - November End

We had 2 awesome sapling distribution events on November 28 and November 29.

The first one was during the engagement ceremony of Alexraj and Grahalakshmi in Chrompet on Friday evening. We took 30 saplings, but only 20 were distributed to 12 people and we returned the remaining 10. Volunteers were Surya and Sai. A guest who attended the engagement enquired about CSS and got interested in our activities. He would like to attend our meetings J.

Next, distribution was at Divya's reception in T.Nagar. We took 60 saplings and an awesome 59 samples were distributed to 45 people. Of the 60, 20 of them were plant saplings, because of the request! Volunteers were Surya, Arun, Pavithra and Sai. As always, people love to take the tree saplings and grow them, but because of space constraints, many couldn't!

Both the events were awesome. Our feedback team will follow up on the given saplings after a month :)

Thanks to Alexraj and Divya for giving us an opportunity to make Chennai a greener :-)

New Members and New Records - Sapling Distribution

During the last 2 weeks, we distributed saplings in and around Kodungaiyur.

On Nov 16, Surya, Arun, Gurubaran and Sai distributed 13 saplings to 4 homes in Manali, Puzhal areas.

On Nov 23, Surya, Sai and Nirmal distributed 20 saplings to 6 homes in and around Kolathur, Perambur, Red Hills.

This was probably the first time in our ECG history that we had the 2nd distribution activity on the same day (Nov 23 evening) :).

Akshyaa, Arun and Surya distributed 6 saplings to 2 homes in West Mambalam.

The young and budding members are easily outperforming aged Tiru and Sai with multiple distributions and that is awesome for our Mother Earth :-)

Few snaps:

More snaps @ https://plus.google.com/photos/116575681234767831679/albums/6086647766390396945

80 Saplings @ Veppambattu Sapling Distribution

We distributed 80 saplings in the reception of Harish and Niranjini on 29.10.2014 in Veppampattu. Thanks to Arvind Sudarshan for providing us this opportunity.

Arvind and Nandu

On Time

This time, we reached the mandapam very early like @ 5.55 PM and spent around an hour drinking juices and having snacks :-) :P

Then after 7.30 only people started getting our saplings and 74 saplings were given by 9.30 PM, after which we went for dinner and left... Arvind handed over the remaining 6 to his relations and messaged us their contact numbers.

New Soul

Nanda Kumar (9th standard student) who is a guest in the marriage, got very interested about our activity and started volunteering :-) He is of big support on that day :-)

Snaps @ https://plus.google.com/photos/100029059227283819807/albums/6075698282540876273

and this time we experimented a new way of getting `sapling receiver` details with a form, which they need to fill and get the sapling. And there will be provision to mark their interests in `Social Activities` and `Blood Group` :-) An idea that sparked in our last `ECG Core Strengthening meet`

​We couldn't engage in conversation to get all details from people, as only 2 of us were there.. Will improve this with next event with more volunteers :-)

Last but not least,

* Happy married Life Harish and Niranjini *

October 2nd Week - Sapling Distribution

We had 2 awesome GREEN events this week and it went awesome :-)

Vana Mahotsav @ JRK Matriculation School, Vadapalani

JRK School is celebrating Vana Mahotsav festival by planting trees in their Campus by the school Students. We picked up 50 saplings from Adambakkam Isha Nursery and delivered for the festive.
Big Kudos to Akshyaa and Arun Prasad for the Distribution :D

Snaps @ https://plus.google.com/photos/116575681234767831679/albums/6069590229673253729

Kodungaiyur Sapling Distribution

We resume this year's Sapling Distribution Activity of this year in North Chennai with this event. There were plenty of requests around Kodungaiyur in Perambur, Kolathur, Red Hills, Thiruvottiyur and more with our Isha Nursery localted at Kodungaiyur.

As a start, we delivered 10 saplings to a Tree Lover in Moolakadai :-) More distribution activities to be planned in the same area in upcoming weeks :-)

Snaps @ https://plus.google.com/photos/116575681234767831679/albums/6069591191975818273

If you would like to Volunteer, reach us @ environmentcaregroup@gmail.com / 9952998132

Environment Care Group - Annual Report 2014

Reason of Origin

In our fast-paced world we tend to forget about the environment around us. Video games and television can distract us from the beauty of nature outside our doors. But just because we don’t often notice it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t care about the deteriorating environment. Hence this team `Environmental Care Group` is launched.

8 years Journey

In the past 8 years we have accomplished a lot in making our environment more greener. Our work included a wide variety of activities:

1. Sapling Plantation in Parks, Grounds, etc.,
2. Distributed Saplings to Individuals who request tree saplings.
3. Distributed Saplings in Bulk to guests of marriage functions, receptions, etc.,
4. Assisted Isha Nurseries in the gardening, maintenance works.
5. Started monitoring governmental activities on Tree Planting to keep a check on public funds being utilized at it best.

Year	Sapling Count
2009 - 2010	2378
2010 - 2011	2219
2011 - 2012	748
2012 - 2013	1240
2013 - 2014	1050
Total	7635

Though we crossed miles, considering our Goal of attaining 33% forest cover in the country, we are yet to go light years ahead.

Expenditure

Year	Sapling Count
2009 - 2010	91525
2010 - 2011	84251
2011 - 2012	21830
2012 - 2013	09386
2013 - 2014	04611
Total	211603

Our Initiatives - SMS - A - Sapling

SMS A Sapling is a brain child of Mr. Tirupathaiah. This project was aimed at Chennai residents who wish to plant trees in their houses, but don’t know where to procure the saplings, how to plant and maintain them. Under this initiative, whoever sends an SMS GREEN to us @ 8754045124, will get a sapling for free. For each SMS that we receive, we call back them, get their address, advise them on the types of trees and distribute it to them for free.

Launched on 26th July 2009 by Mr.Naresh Gupta Chief Election Commissioner @ Queen Marry college Chennai.

Our Initiatives - Sapling Distribution at functions

We initiated a culture of distributing sapling to guests for special functions like marriage, reception, etc., in Chennai. We are regularly distributing saplings to marriage function, on demand.

Presentation

Links to Photo Albums:

1. https://www.facebook.com/Saiyasodharan/media_set?set=a.774126349285878.1073741857.100000655597076&type=3
2. https://www.facebook.com/Saiyasodharan/media_set?set=a.772487846116395.1073741854.100000655597076&type=3
3. https://www.facebook.com/Saiyasodharan/media_set?set=a.770609949637518.1073741853.100000655597076&type=3
4. https://www.facebook.com/Saiyasodharan/media_set?set=a.736118743086639.1073741842.100000655597076&type=3
5. https://www.facebook.com/Saiyasodharan/media_set?set=a.620446441320537.1073741829.100000655597076&type=3
6. https://plus.google.com/photos/+SaiyasodharanR/albums/5937116720227531553
7. https://plus.google.com/photos/+SaiyasodharanR/albums/5937125276592803265
8. https://plus.google.com/photos/+SaiyasodharanR/albums/5939892083923125185

100 Saplings Distribution @ Wedding Reception, Mylapore

We are to distribute 100 saplings on the request of Mr. Swaminathan for her daughter's wedding reception.

Our volunteer, Surya Prasad picks up 100 saplings single handedly from Adambakkam Isha Nursery. He then takes it to the Mandapam @ Mylapore in Auto. There he was welcomed by our Senior volunteer, Thirupathaiah. When they are arranging the saplings and are about to start the distribution, our other volunteers Almas, Rathi, Master Varun, Jai Sankar and Kirubha joins the team and starts the distribution.

Thanks to the team, Mr. Swamination for this wonderful opportunity.

*** Happy Married life to Sowmya and Karthik ***

Few snaps:

For readers: If you would like to distribute plant saplings @ your functions, drop us a mail to admin@chennaisocialservice.org. Price will be Rs. 5 / sapling + transportation charges.