Respected Principal, dear teachers and friends,
As you are aware in connection with the activities of the Haritha Keralam Project, the Nature Club of our School has organized this programme for planting trees in the campus. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Nature never hurries, atom by atom, little by little, she achieves’ fier work.” He is very right when we think how the trees grow taking their time to reach their full status as trees. Before a tree becomes a full- edged tree it passes through many stages – seed, seedling, sapling and then tree. Some trees take years to become real trees. But look at man! How cruelly he cuts them down in just a few minutes to use it as fuel, for furniture work, construction works and even to make paper. Sometimes man destroys entire forests to convert them into farmlands or to make factories and residential areas. Large scale deforestation brings about climatic changes. Even in Kerala there are climatic changes because of the large scale destruction of forests.
Trees absorb the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and supply us oxygen. They prevent the soil from eroding. They help in blocking the clouds and bring rain. They supply us a lot of forest products like honey, wax and different kind of herbs and roots. Nowadays forests are converted into National Parks attracting tourists from all over the world. That way also, trees bring us money. Thus forests help us in so many ways and so destroying them will be suicidal.
We all should emulate Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan lady and the Nobel Prize Winner, who led a crusade against deforestation. She wanted each person to plant some trees as his duty to help himself and also posterity. In India we had the Chipko Movement. When the contractors came to cut down the trees, the women from the locality rushed to the forest and stood near the trees embracing them. Chipko in Hindi means embrace. The men who came to cut down the trees had to go back because of the people embracing the trees.
John Keats, the famous English Romantic poet said, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” I believe a tree is a thing beauty and we should do our best to preserve our trees and plant new ones. Today let’s pledge that each one of us will plant at least ten trees. Remember it Is not enough to plant trees, but make sure that they grow by giving the trees adequate care.
Let’s make our campus green and contribute our share to make the earth green. Thank you all!
