This man is on a mission to stop people from nailing ads on trees. Nail, which are used for pinning ads and billboards, have a detrimental effect on trees says Madhav Patil.
“Indian scientist Jagdish Chandra Bose has proved trees have feelings. They can laugh and cry. So it’s not okay to harm a tree or to put nails trees”, he says.
Madhav has raised an army of 500 volunteers at his Pune-based NGO, Angholichi Goli who work relentlessly to make Maharashtra a greener state.
“Nail-free tree work is going on in four states and in Maharashtra we have covered 20 districts. Till date we have removed 60,000 to 70,000 nails from 7,000 to 8,000 trees,” says Madhav.
Patil says many are not even aware that there are laws prohibiting defacement of trees in the public space.
Tejashri Patil, a volunteer with the group says, “We approached several civic bodies to spread our message. We have worked with Virar and Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporations. They have even acknowledged our work and the authorities have issued notice that those found using trees for billboards could be fined upto Rs 5000 or may face imprisonment upto three months.”
