People are increasingly fitting trees with nails to attach ads and other posters. In the past one year, twenty-five volunteers of Angolichi Goli have removed 5,700 nails from around 2,000 trees. The initiative to make trees free of nails was started by Sonal Menon, an entrepreneur from Dadar. Last year, she along with her friends and family members started to remove nails from trees in different localities. Ancient Baobab Trees Called 'Tree of Life' Are Slowly Dying Due to Climate Change in Southern Africa: Research.

The group members said that it was their way of giving back to 'Mother Earth' on Mother's Day. A Hindustan Times report quoted Sonal as saying, "I had seen a banner pinned on a tree sometime back. That is when I realised that an initiative like this is needed to help people understand the importance of trees." She said that they are also trying to reach the civic authorities to form rules against nailing advertisements and posters on trees.

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Balaji Sagar, a volunteer from the group was quoted as saying, "Replicating this idea, we have kicked off a similar campaign in Latur and Osmanabad because we face severe water scarcity there. I am hoping this would help bring about a balance there." Tushar added that they have been trying to reach authorities urging for legal action. Nailing trees are against the Tree Act, Environment Protection Act and Maharashtra Defacement of Property Act.

Let's stop killing trees

Nail removing campaign

According to an order issued by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in April 2013, trees should not be used to support advertisements or banners. Tushar Warang, the district coordinator for Nail Free Tree, was quoted as saying, "According to a study it was found that even trees have feelings and when nails are used on their bark and trunk, their veins weaken, which further affects photosynthesis. That being the case, we don't get oxygen to live if we keep defacing trees."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 13, 2019 04:49 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).