Ainthinai members, planting a tree at Vasantham Nagar near Sarah Tucker College in Palayamkottai.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGMENT
Refusing to be home-bound after their superannuation, a small group of senior citizens, who worked with different government departments, have joined hands with working professionals, including ‘Gen Z’, in increasing the green cover of blistering Palaymkottai by planting trees on Tuesdays.Their organisation, ‘Ainthinai – Green Hands Nellai’ was born in Palayamkottai a few years ago with the objective of planting as many trees in Perumalpuram and NGO Colony areas and maintaining them until the trees withstand threat from stray cattle. When the noble cause assumed greater momentum with more number of people joining the mission, the ‘Aithinai’ members, who were initially concentrating only in their areas, have now extended their service in places surrounding their areas, where they plant trees on Tuesdays.The composition of ‘Ainthinai’ itself is very interesting as it has Samraj, a retired Agricultural Engineer, siddha medical practioner Rajesh, retired Joint Director of Horticulture S. Raja Mohammed, ISRO scientist Manoharan, abacus teacher Premakala, businessmen Lawrence and David, students Surya and Muthukumar and a few IT professionals. And, this list is very long as ‘Ainthinai’ now has more than 300 members, who love trees.“Our motto is ‘My tree my city’. If you guarantee that you can take care of a couple of trees being planted by us in front of your home, we’re ready to plant a tree in front of your house with a guard. Only thing you need to do is to water the plant regularly to keep it healthy,” say 81-year-old Mr. Samraj and Raja Mohammed, who play an active role in planting ‘star trees planting programme’ in Pallikkaranai and Medavaakkam areas of Chennai and giving technical guidance to ‘Ainthinai’ to planting trees safely.The group encourages the planting of native species as these varieties withstand any harsh climatic condition and threat from stray cattle. As passers-by and those who go for morning walk stop to take a look at the saplings being planted by the ‘Ainthinai’ members in green ‘T’ shirts, one of the members talk to them and convince them to plant as many trees as they can during their lifetime.“We’ve so far planted more than 15,000 trees in Palayamkottai and this number will grow on every Tuesday,” says Mr. Manoharan.Despite their old age, age-related ailments or family and professional commitments, these members become young as they join together to plant trees as even the retired government employees effortlessly dig pits while humming a song close to their heart.“We draw immense happiness and satisfaction as we plant a few trees on Tuesdays. We intend to magnify this happiness and satisfaction by planting more trees and by involving more number of people to make Palayamkottai greener,” says Mr. Raja Mohammed. Published - May 28, 2026 05:30 pm IST
