Regreen Chennai Mini Marathon, an awareness program for reviving city's green cover

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], Sept.4 (ANI-Newsvoir): As part of its intense movement for reviving green cover of the city, ReGreen Chennai initiative saw a huge participation in its mini marathon program organised inside YMCA campus.

About 1000 youth apart from participation in the run for a cause took the regreen initiative to next level plating about 1000 saplings within the campus for a future small forest.

A part from the support of Chennai-ites, the program received an appreciative pat from foreign missions in the region.

People from all walks of life including students, professionals, house wives and social activists took part in the 5 km and 10 km mini marathon events. Winners under these events were given away prizes.

Participation certificate was given to all the participants. Ms. Vinolia Lobo, Wife of Spanish Consul, honoured the winners. Mr. Robert Burgess, Consul General of America, was the Chief Guest of the Tree Plantation Program. Ms.Yulia Antonova, Vice Consul, Russian Consulate in Chennai, was present. Ms. Raja M. Kausalya Devi, Honorary Consul of France in Chennai, was among who planted tree saplings.

Planting of over 2000 Palmyra seeds along Adayar river banks was also initiated today and will mark the beginning of a long program to create Palmyra Flood Wall along both Adayar and Coovam rivers towards saving the city from recurrence of huge inundation like flood of the year 2015.

ReGreen Chennai initiative was officially launched on July 07, 2017. The mini marathon event is one among the series of awareness programs under the initiative.

More than 20 ReGreen seminars have been organized so far in various schools and colleges. In little over fifty days in the past around 30000 trees have been planted and 70,000 more to be done within two months.

A full-fledged urban ReGreen tree nursery has been established at Alwarpet. More than 2500 Palmyra tree seeds were planted along the outer bund line of Nedunkuntram lake near Perungalathur.

"ReGreen Chennai is a systematically planned initiative to strengthen and escalate the ongoing many efforts from different sections of the society to enhance the green cover of Chennai, specifically in the background of green cover loss caused by cyclone Vardah. We have so far kept the protocol of planting only native species that shoot up to 6 feet and above for a truly perfect green cover. Moreover, trees are being planted in places where upkeep will be assured. In addition, saving the water bodies has been integrated to ReGreen core agenda for regaining the well balanced ecosystem," said Fr. Jegath Gaspar Raj, Visionary and Promoter of ReGreen Chennai initiative.

"ReGreen Chennai is envisioned with 10-year long activities. Projects are to be executed in several phases. Our multi stakeholder approach has yielded good result. So far around 30 organisations have aligned under ReGreen Chennai. In Kanchipuram and Thiruvallur districts many farmers and private land owners who have large land tracts have agreed to work with ReGreen Chennai to create "OXYGEN POCKETS", that is intense and massive tree planting on a specific stock of land," he added.

Envisioned by Fr. Jegath Gaspar Raj on behalf of Earth Smiles, the initiative is being jointly orchestrated by civil society organizations which include Rotary Intl, Canara Bank Officers Association, Mini Marathon Advocates, CREDAI, Y's Men Intl, EXNORA, Federation of TN Farmers Associations, Vanagam, Osai, Madras Social Service Society, Inthinai, CTC- Chennai Trekking Club, Good News TV, Brand Avatar, Classic Hymms, Tamil Chamber of Commerce, News Media Association of India, CATALYST, YMCA and Confederation of Tamil Agriculture Commerce Industry and Services (CTACIS). (ANI-Newsvoir)