Pledge to plant

June 28, 2010

Website starts plant a tree campaign, sends reminder emails so that couch potatoes don't their green date

Sneha Mahale

Want to save the environment but don't know how to get started? You may want to check this website for some tips. Called www.mytreemyday.org (mTmD), the portal that commenced operating on June , encourages people to plant trees on any day of their choice. What's more, those who take on this commitment are sent reminders, encouraging them to keep their pledge date.

The idea to start mTmD came about seven weeks ago when Aditya Dwivedi, a chemical engineer from IIT-B, insisted that his friends plant trees.

Passion calling

"Aditya is passionate about the environment. He called me and asked me to plant a tree in my locality. I wasn't able to spot a location near my home and being a lazy guy, I didn't try to identify any other place and skipped the idea," says Amit Aggarwal, co-founder of mTmD.

However, Dwivedi didn't stop and called Aggarwal daily to ask for a status update. Finally, Aggarwal figured out a location and planted a tree.

That's when Aggarwal thought of creating a website which can act like Aditya for people like him. And mTmD was born, as part of their plant a tree campaign.

How it works

As part of the pledge, volunteers need do drop an email to mTmD mentioning the date on which they are going to plant the tree. As soon as they receive the email, the date mentioned turns green on Tree Calender on the website.

And for folks who are simply lazy, they send an email reminder call a day before the pledge date.

Volunteers can also upload images of trees planted and have discussions. They can help fellow volunteers by tagging locations where trees can be planted.

The mTmD team also helps volunteers by providing them with a list of places where saplings are available and gives out information on what plant varities are best suited for that particular area.

Up next

In the immediate future, the team also plans to start a sponsor a date programme that will allow people to just pay for the sapling and let team members plant it and ensure that it grows successfully.

"We are hoping that people will use this option around birthdays and anniversaries and gift trees to their loved ones," says Aggarwal.

There are also plants to involve corporates and get more people involved in this initiative in a bid to expand its reach.

Aggarwal says, "But the website is still in its nascent stage and our immediate priority is to create awareness."

Green bike trip

To create more awareness about planting tress, Aditya Dwivedi undertook a 10-day bike trip across the country:

I started my bike trip on June 17 and on the first day itself; faced heavy rains and strong winds. But I still managed to distribute 100 seeds to nariyalwallahs, dhabewhallahs and farmers.

Two days later, after a halt at Pune. I moved North. I distributed many seeds to farmers. Then I headed towards Kota and rested for two days, I moved to Jaipur, and on the seventh day, cought the loo (hot wind) and fell ill. and couldn't ride anymore.

Overall, I managed to distributer more than 1,100 seeds of rain tree, seesam and neem. I am hopeful that at least 400-500 will turn info full-grown trees, as most of the seeds were distributed to farmers.