Giving impetus to its afforestation drive to compensate for the over 1,000 trees felled for the metro rail project, Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) has kicked off a campaign to plant 5,000 trees in the Greater Kochi region in the coming year.

On Friday, World Environment Day, trees such as jamun (njaval), red sandalwood, sitaphal, guava, and gooseberry (amla) trees were planted at Vyttila metro station. C. Meenakshi, Conservator of Forests, planted a mahogany sapling.

Alkesh Kumar Sharma, MD, KMRL, spoke of how Australia witnessed massive bushfires and different countries faced floods, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the locust threat. “There is need to protect the environment so that it protects us,” he said.

K. Anand, trustee of Adi Shankara Group of Institutions, planted a sapling at the metro station. The institution has agreed to provide land to KMRL to plant 2,000 tree saplings inside their campus. The NSS volunteers of the institution will plant them. The rest of the 3,000 saplings will be planted on the banks of canals and places such as Chellanam on the coastline, metro sources said.

On its part, the metro agency has requested all its employees to plant at least one tree on their own residential premises. For this, saplings were handed over to employees at the KMRL corporate office.

Since its inception, KMRL has planted around 7,500 tree saplings in Ernakulam district. They include 3,550 trees planted along the 16-km-long Container Terminal Road that links Vallarpadam with Kalamassery, said sources in the agency.

“We ensured their upkeep during the initial years, till NHAI which owns the road, took up the responsibility. At least 3,000 of the saplings have become trees now,” they said.

In addition, KMRL has planted saplings alongside the metro corridor, especially on both sides of the Edappally-MG Road-Vyttila stretch. Tree guards were erected to protect them. Many of the saplings wilted due to lack of upkeep, while some others were destroyed by unscrupulous persons.

A. Ajith Kumar, executive committee member of EDRAAC which distributed 4,000 saplings to different associations on Friday, warned that more saplings would wilt unless KMRL took care of them.

“The metro agency must take stock of their condition every few months and must also do a proper audit of the number of saplings that survived, vis-a-vis the number that was planted,” he said.

DMRC had planted saplings in the vicinity of the metro's casting yard at Kalamassery and along Salim Rajan Road.

An NHAI official said that the agency had been frequently watering saplings on Container Road and replacing unhealthy ones. There was still space on both sides of the road to plant more trees, since the stretch is 60-m wide. Organisations or individuals were welcome to join the greening drive, he said.