Vellore Corporation to plant native saplings on Palar river bank to prevent waterlogging

The Vellore Corporation will plant saplings, mostly native species, on erstwhile dump yard site on the banks of Palar River at Kagithapattarai near Collectorate in Vellore to prevent soil erosion and waterlogging in surrounding residential areas.

Corporation officials said that the civic body had maintained a small landfill site on the riverbank to dump wastes generated in Zone 1 and 2 for more than three decades. The Corporation consists of 60 wards in four zones with a population of eight lakh persons. “Accumulated wastes in the landfill site along the river are being removed through bio-mining. Saplings will be planted on vacant space to provide much-needed green cover in the area,” R. Lakshman, Commissioner, Vellore Corporation, told The Hindu.

At present, 240 tonnes of wastes are generated within civic body limits every day. Most of the wastes are handled at landfill sites at Saduperi lake and along Palar for many years. “Apart from tree plantation, a children’s park should be created on the landfill site to act as a recreational spot for residents, who have to go to Vellore fort to avail such a facility,” said G. Padma, a resident.

Civic officials said that two acres of land on the riverbank were used as a dump yard. With biomining, around 50,000 cubic meters of wastes are being removed from the landfill site along the river. The work will be completed in the coming weeks.

As part of rejuvenation of the landfill site space, saplings of native species will be planted to restore soil fertility on the land that could have lost its nourishment due to continuous dumping of garbage all these years.  Corporation officials said that soil tests were also conducted to plant saplings along the river to make sure they are suited to local weather conditions. Women workers enrolled under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme were roped in to plant saplings, which were sourced from the Forest Department.

Plant varieties like vaagai (Albizia lebbeck), vembu (Azadirachta indica), mantharai (Bauhinia purpurea), punnai (Calophyllum inophyllum), kalyana murungai (Erythrina variegata) and arasamaram (Ficus religiosa) were among those planted as part of the initiative.

Civic staff will be roped in to water the plants twice a week for a period of one year. Tree guards, which would be removed after two years, were provided to shield the saplings from damage before maintenance work is taken up by the Water Resources Department (WRD).