Updates on the six plantation drives of this season 2010:

Total number of saplings planted up till now : 350
Venue for Drive 1 to 4 and 6th: Pedyacha Bhairoba Mountain, Shukrawar Peth, Satara.
Venue for 5 th drive: A farmland near Kondwe

1st drive (12/6/2010) : 40 Nilmohar ,40 Raintree ,20 Shisav
2nd drive (19/6/2010) : 50 Nilmohar
3rd drive (26/6/2010) : 25 Kadilimbu,25 awala
4th drive (27/6/2010) : 25 Kadilimbu,25 Jambul
5th drive (3/7/2010) : 10 mango,10 Jambul,15 awala, 15 tamarind
6th drive (4/7/2010) : 50 Kadilimbu

Me and tree campaign this year had a very shaky start. People who had committed on big sum of donations had backed out last moment and people who had been counted for labour and time suddenly got busy, the only thing in abundance was the will to plant trees and that was the game changer.

With a target of planting a minimum 500 trees, I had estimated a budget based on last year‘s expenditure to be around Rs.10, 000/- :: 500*Rs.10/pit for digging: 5,000 + Rs 5,000(for saplings fertilsers, transport and miscellaneous expenditure) but was proved wrong just like intelligent trade analyst are dumbfounded by the mysterious stock markets.

The site of tree plantation is deprived of soil cover , it contains only murum as called in Marathi, in English it can be referred as soft rock. So the cost per pit demanded by the daily wage workers was higher than could have predicted, they started with Rs.70 per pit dug and after bargain came to last price of Rs.50/pit which was completely unacceptable, coz it would escalate the pit digging cost of Rs.25,000/- for 500 pits. So finally a decision was made to dig the pits and plant the saplings on our own.

Till 11th June 2010 with only Rs.2,000/- collected thousand each from Gyanendra Singh and Shashank Kothari, people backing out last moment ,the mammoth task of planting 500 trees on a barren soft rocked mountain seemed next to impossible.

With doubts we began the first drive on Saturday 12th June 2010 with 100 saplings to plant. We had two new guys Nilesh Deshpande and Vinay Patil joining the “Me and Tree” who were determined to take ahead “Me and Tree” in spite of the obstacles but I doubted their conviction until the ground work really started, but I was happy that they proved my doubts wrong and brought two more guys Prashant Nade and Aftab Bagwan who are equally sincere and dedicated towards the cause. All of them have been associated from the 1st to the 350th sapling and this year’s campaign wouldn’t have been possible without them. Along with them Rohan Shelar and Azim Momin also have played pivotal role in the campaign this year. Rajesh Kasar, Shailesh Ghorpade, Prathmesh Ghorpade, Satyajit Gadekar and Manoj Deshmukh helped in the campaign at isolated instances but surely their help was noteworthy. And last but not the least Mr. Santosh Kamble was important link as he provided logistical support throughout the campaign.

2010 Agenda

Target : To Plant a minimum 500 Trees (Possible only if sufficient man-power and funds are at disposal)
Approximate Estimation : Rs.10,000/-
(Saplings Ranging from Rs.5 to 25/-, Labour Charges(around Rs.250/- per head per day),Transport,Organic Fertilizer)

Funds generated till now Rs 2,000/-

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First Plantation Drive:
Saplings to be Planted :100.
Date : 12th and 13 th June 2010.
Venue : Pedhyacha Bhairoba,Shukrawar Peth Satara.

Join in..till then promote,contribute and go green:)

2009 review

2009 review
I had been yesterday to the first plantation site of me and tree(the barren mountain called pedhya cha bhairoba,shukrawar peth satara you can refer to my earlier posts for details)I was happy to acknowledge that around 20-22 tree had survived on that barren mountain(that is just less than 50 % of the the number of trees planted that were 50).Few can be annoyed when i say that i am happy that trees just less than 50 % have survived,but considering the circumstances it really a good percentage.Primarily we had the plantation on 30th august 2009 which meant we had lost the important 3 months of rain and then we(saplings) were hugely at the mercy of nature for water,apart from lack of water these sapling had to face the grazing animal hostilities and wild fire in summer.Despite this circumstances these 22 sapling survived.And that's why i am happy..
And the Rest 240 saplings that we had planted with help of farmers had a 99% chance to survive considering that they were beneficial to the farmer so they ought to take care of it.If i will state that all 240 sapling have survived it will be a hyperbole.It is difficult to track 240 remote places for me personally.but i am confident that more than 80% should have survived coz the farmers had made a promise to take care of the saplings and not everbody breaks there promise,there are still people who stand for their words.And I am very positive about this belief and the saplings we have handed over to them:)
This year lets go ahead with determination to plant more trees and increase the probability more saplings to survive.

First Plantation drive for this season

Hi!!
Me and tree's first plantation drive for this season will be before 15th june 2010.Initially planning to plant min 150 trees.Will update the details shortly.Your support is important and is highly appreciated.Will get back soon!!

Second phase completed at vetane 40 kms towards east of satara

(2nd from left) Mr.Balasaheb Jaganath Nalawade and (3rd from right) Sarpanch,Mr.Shankar Nalawade(Vetane)

Owing towards elusive monsoon we wanted to plant trees at places where they would be taken care of regularly and effectively.So we came up with an solution of distributing trees to the farmers.Planting trees with farmers atleast assured us that they would survive independently of how the monsoon is going to be.We thought of selecting the kind of trees which would excite farmers to surely take care of the them,so we were inclined to provide them with fruit trees like coconut,mango and lemon which would also generate some revenue for them.Mr.Balasaheb Jaganath Nalawade(H.O.D electronics depatment,Y.C.I.S) was of great help in this activity.He along with his brother surveyed the village and made list of farmers that had ably taken care of their previous plantation and made a list to whom the saplings
should be distributed.
We distributed total of 120 trees(60-coconuts,40-mango,20-lemon).Chetan Nalawade,Gautam Firodiya and Pushkar Firodiya of Me and Tree were well recieved
by the sarpanch Mr.Shankar Nalawade and the people of vetane.

First Phase Completed on 30th August

Me and tree completed its first phase of planting big saplings on the barren mountain of pedhya cha bhairoba as mentioned in the previous post.We were supposed to plant 40 saplings but Aloysius Nadar provided his trax for transportation of saplings from the government nursery to foothill of the mountain so we saved on the amount of Rs.250/- and that helped us add 10 more saplings.

(left to right) Aloysius Nadar and Gautam Firodiya

Plantation wasn't easy as we thought,carrying the saplings from the foothill to the top,sapped our energies.Initially we were only six guys Gautam Firodiya,Aloysius Nadar,Sagar Shinde,Dattaray Shinde(this guy had come from malgaon some 40 km from satara),Chetan Nalawade and me,so it took almost 10 trips for each of us to carry the saplings and tools to the mountain top from the foot.

(left to right) Gautam Firodiya,Chetan Nalawade,Aloysius Nadar,Dattaraj Shinde and Pushkar Firodiya

We had hired a labour to dig pits 1.5 X 1 ft for planting in the saplings at the rate of Rs.5/- per hole,this turned to be a bad bargain:initially we assumed that we could make in atleast 20 pits by ourselves and so we would need to pay him only Rs.150/- for remaining 30 which would be Rs.50/- less than his entire day wage of Rs.200/- but we were physically exhausted by our trips uphill and he had to dig all 50 so we ended up paying him Rs.250/- that was Rs.50/- more than his one day labour charge.But we have noted this and will not repeat the mistake next time :)

The first sapling planted

Some how after regrouping our energies we started planting the sapling but after 32nd sapling we had given up succumbing to the exhaustion and decided to plant remaining the next day .This exhaustion could have overcomed if we would had carried some refreshment and water bottles(this was another thing worth noting)
But then Harshad Firodiya,Ajay Borate and Vishwas Kunwar joined us and helped us achieving our target of planting the remaining 18 saplings,they did get refreshments and water for us.Even the group of the senior citizens joined by the end of it and everything ended as planed




The senior citizen group who are going to take care of the plantation



This is how the mounatin looked on 30th August 2009

First Phase to take place on 30th august

The first phase of me and tree will be on 30th August.Plantation of 40 big saplings will take place at the at mountain called Pedhya cha Bhairoba near shukrawar peth in satara.A group 15 retired men have been planting trees on the same mountain for past year or so and are taking care of them.They assemble every evening around 5 pm at the mountain and water the trees planted.They have promised to take care of the trees we will plant and were delighted to know about me and tree campaign.They have blessed all those who have participated to continue the good work we are doing:)