Surat Tree Watch is a Prayas Team Environment Initiative to create & nurture all
efforts directed towards saving Trees in Surat City.
STW will play a proactive role in identifying potential harm to trees & delivery
of innovative solutions through governmental / non-governmental organizations to
ensure right tree cover for a healthy ecosystem.
We will consider ourselves successful if we are able to increase tree coverage in
surat to at least 1 tree per household and ensure that a dedicated citizen, citizen
group or governmental agency is focused at caring for each and every tree in the
city limits of surat.
As part of this campaign,
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We did survey of all trees of the city and created a database of the same with geographical
location wherever it was possible.
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We have encouraged people to take photos of trees and share on facebook on which
expert can share their knowledge regarding the tree.
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We have identified different species of trees in city and started monitoring their
flowering and growth etc.
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We have launched tree rescue SMS helpline where people can send SMSto report the
threat to the tree and our team will do the needful to save that tree. They can
also report through email or online.
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This help line is really successful where people can report tree cutting and we
can alert the garden department for the same.
This has come as a life line for urban trees of Surat, as thousands of people are
now owning and contributing towards the cause.
Be a watcher
If you want to 'become' a tree watcher, you need to 'be a watcher'. So, just start
watching trees surrounding you and start identifying them. You will realize that
we are not even able to identify common trees around us. You can start reading about
trees from books or can read posts and ask questions to us on our face book page.
Do you feel its tedious and not much concern about learning about their species
and so? Its fine, many of us are like that. But at same time we also realize the
importance of saving them. So, at least we can, identify threat to the trees and
report the threat to our tree help line.
Below sections explains the threats to the tree and what you can do for them.
Identify Threat
Following are most common threat to the trees
Chocking
While pavement or road construction, they do not keep required breathing spaces
surrounding the tree. This result to the chocking and it will stop the growth of
the tree.
Tree guards are also results to chocking if they are not cut to give space to the
trees.
Falling Tree
Many times trees are being trimmed from one side (generally on rode side trees,
side towards the building are being trimmed the most). This results to have branches
weights on one side only and will result tree starts slanting at one side. Eventually
it will fall down.
Report a Threat by clicking HERE