Over 30 volunteers of Coimbatore District Road Protection Association worked for nearly two hours on Sunday morning, removing the flex boards, advertisement boards, and nails from trees along Mettupalayam road from Thudiyalur to Raachipalayam Pirivu.
The boards and the nails from the trees on either side of Mettupalayam road on this three-km stretch were removed jointly with the authorities of the National Highways and the NSS volunteers from Kongunadu Arts and Science College, said M. Devendran, secretary of the association.
The association decided at its recent meeting to remove the nails from the trees, and S. Venugopal, its president, headed the initiative on Sunday.
It was for the district administration and the local bodies to prevent agencies, trade bodies and educational institutions from using the trees for their advertisement purposes, which affected the growth of trees and also free flow of traffic. The association removed a lorry load of flex boards and nails from the trees and disposed them of safely, Mr. Devendran said.
The association appealed to the district administration and other stake holders – local bodies, Forest Department - to prevent repeated incidents of fixing advertisement boards on trees.
Action sought
The authorities should prevent this kind of anti-environment activities through stern action on a regular basis, failing which, the association would not hesitate to organise an agitation in front of the Collectorate, he added. The association appealed to the National Highways to help transplant 148 trees while taking up the road widening project on this stretch.
As part of this process, the upper branches of the trees were pruned by the authorities for easy removal and transplantation, Mr. Devendran said.
