Angholichi Goli, a nonprofit organisation has been appealing to people to skip bathing once a week, for the last four years. They have been doing that to stand in solidarity with drought-stricken farmers and want people to imbibe a sense of sacrifice, fraternity and compassion. The organisation is presided by Madhav Patil, who is an Electrical Consultant by profession.
The organisation started the “Nail Free Tree” campaign a couple of months ago with the aim of making all the trees in India nail free. People have been misusing trees for their petty greed in the form of advertisements, promoting their businesses, furthering superstitions, etc. And it is wrong to harm trees in this way because:
1. Eminent Indian scientist Dr Jagdish Chandra Bose had proved that trees can experiences sensations in their own ways.
2. It is illegal to nail trees.
3. It is a public space. The trees belong to everyone. They cannot be abused in such a way. Hence, the campaign is indeed one that tries to reclaim a public space.
‘Goli’ has cleaned the trees on various roads of Mumbai, Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. Various organisations also joined in during specific days of the week, to make trees nail-free. Climate change and global warming has created havoc throughout the world. While the UN tries to nudge governments towards a sustainable future, what can a common man do? Madhav opines, “Trees are the most fundamental solution to climate change. This campaign tries to conserve and nurture trees and fight climate change.”
Following Pune and Mumbai, the campaign has spread to Pimpri-Chinchwad, Bhandara, Thane and Kalyan. Senior citizens and youngsters have taken a special interest in the activity. In Mumbai, Angholichi Goli’s has covered areas like Dadar, Matunga and suburbs like Goregaon, Virar and Vasai.
Furthermore, they don’t just want nail-free trees but also expect trees to be planted with at least a one-meter diameter for natural soil and water perculation. The organisation is also removing ‘tree guards’ from around big trees which don’t need them and can be utilised for new trees in their plantation drive.
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Why do trees feel pain?
Physicist and biologist Jagadish Chandra Bose proved in his books ‘Response in the Living and Non-Living’ (1902) and ‘The Nervous Mechanism of Plants’ (1926) that plants have a sensitive nervous system, not dissimilar to that of animals, and their responses to external stimuli could be measured and recorded. His work showed that trees could feel pleasure as well as pain.
Trees can be exposed to the chemical reaction
“When you insert a nail into a tree, the tissue uniformity discontinues or breaks down. The presence of around 10 holes could cause enough structural and health problems to kill a tree. Puncture wounds offer easy access to insects and diseases as well. Vascular plants lack an immune system and when a tree is nailed, a chemical reaction takes place hindering the food chain process. The tree eventually dies.” — Apoorva Deodhar, Botanist.
According to a case study by the Indian Institute of Science, Mumbai, in the 1970s the city had a green cover of 35% that has now been reduced to less than 13%. The green cover should ideally be around 33% to suffice for the city’s population. In terms of simple ratio, currently, four people are getting oxygen from one tree where ideally it should be the other way around.
Thus Angholichi Goli is striving towards a better future for generations to come with minimum tree cover of 33% for not only for Maharashtra but for Entire India. Come and join us for a greener life on the earth.
This article was written by Tushar Warang, a member of Angholichi Goli.