‘Get a declaration from the site owner’In 2014, when Thuvakkam began its journey, the first project had to do with the greening of a patch on a campus. But as luck would have it, that green patch eventually gave way to a building with classrooms.Lesson learnt: extract a promise from the owners of the patch, whether government or private, that the patch will stay green. But the same challenge has dogged us through the years, particularly where government-owned sites are concerned: there is no telling what will become of a patch that has been given a patch of green.Recently, at a public park where we had undertaken a greening initiative, the government constructed an anganwadi, resulting in the removal of trees. Imagine our disappointment! For an ongoing project at a parcel of land owned by the Southern Railway, we have got a written assurance that the land will not be touched for five to eight years.Krishna Kumar Suresh, founder, ThuvakkamMake them alliesAfter a plantation exercise at a government school in Puducherry, the headmaster called me days later to say that many of the saplings were missing. The needle of suspicion pointed to the students. I was shocked to learn that students had taken the saplings of fruit-bearing trees probably to grow them in their own backyard.Lesson learnt: make them allies. This incident taught us the need to start a ‘Green Brigade’ where we give each child a free fruit sapling. These plants find their way into homes of students and other public spaces where they are nurtured by children. Under the Green Brigade initiative, we have so far given away many saplings.To promote a sense of ownership, we started the practice of having a name board created at every plantation site. This has the name of the farmer responsible for nurturing the plants along with details of the plant species. But at one drive, I noticed that many saplings were left to wither in a corner, unplanted, as the people entrusted with the job of planting them had left the scene. After this episode, we make it a point to have the nameboard put up only after all the saplings are planted.Prasiddhi Singh, founder, Prasiddhi Forest Foundation‘Keep a backup plan in place’We had planted more than 8,000 saplings on a 24-acre land owned by SIPCOT in Siruseri only to find that more than 60 per cent of them withered one harsh summer. The local civic body was providing water for these saplings and due to some reason the supply stopped affecting some young plants that needed water the most. Jackfruit and a medical plant used for cancer were the biggest victims.Lesson learnt: one cannot rely on any institution for the continued survival of the saplings one had planted. So, before taking up such a massive exercise, have a Plan B, one particularly geared to meeting the saplings’ water needs. Knowing the soil, the groundwater table and the kind of trees planted is important.At the same OSR site where we are growing a Miyawaki forest and raising a regular plantation, we have now arranged a 20,000 litre tank with a private supplier refilling it. We have replaced the lost plants with new ones.Lt. Col. N. Thiagarajan, general secretary, Mastermind Foundation‘Let go; or hang on till they see reason’As part of their CSR initiative, a corporate had given us a list of plants they wanted us to grow and maintain, but a majority of those plants were not suited for Chennai’s climate. We tried explaining to the corporate how the location and the soil type plays an important role in the growth of plants but they would not listen.In another case, an amusement park on East Coast Road wanted us to plant aesthetic-looking trees on their property. The problem with such trees is that they may not necessarily have a long life span and are not of much help to the ecosystem.Lesson learnt: these two scenarios taught us to choose between two wise approaches. One, drop the project. Two, take up the work but make sure the client sees reason as you progress with the project.Sreekumar Nair, founder, TREES