This Bengaluru-based scientist and his friends are on a mission to rid trees of nails and staplers

While it is quite tempting to drill a nail or a stapler into a tree just to hang a poster or a flyer, the dangers that come along are plenty - not just for the tree but for anyone who decides to lean against it.

Fed up with this situation, Vinod Kartavya, an assistant scientist at the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) in Bengaluru decided to change this.

“Recently I was leaning against a tree and a nail sticking out of it hurt the back of my head. I removed the nail and noticed that nearly all the trees in Sampangiram Nagar ward were damaged like this with posters and advertisements. After this, my friends and I decided that we would spend a few hours every Sunday removing the foreign objects,” Vinod told ANI.

So, every Sunday, starting from November 15, he, either alone or along with his friends, Vinod started going out and freeing the trees of these nails, advertisement placards and other illegal signages that are pasted or stuck on their trunks.

“On the first day, we collected 40 nails and around 500 staple pins from 10 trees on the Vittal Mallya Road alone,” he told The News Minute.

“As billboard advertisements has been made illegal now by BBMP, the advertisements for call Centres, PG accommodation, banking employment, fortune tellers have chosen the wrong path of advertising on the trees for their benefit. Sadly. the impact of these on trees are long lasting, when a tree has been hit with nails, its life will be drastically reduced, by 60 - 70 percent,” he said.

Until November 29, Vinod and his friends cleared nails from about 40 trees from the Sampangi Rama Nagara ward in the Central Business District area. They found about 1,000 to 2,000 staple pins and over 250 nails on a single tree itself.

“Last Sunday, we went to KG Road. Each tree had around 1,000 to 2,000 staple pins and 250 nails. It was a huge task. It took three hours, from 7am to 10am, just to clean seven trees,” he said, and added that he was hopeful that more people would join the movement.

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