Concern over the degradation of the urban green cover lead NDPL to start its own environmental movement — planting 2,500 saplings in all its locations

With environmental degradation now on everyone's concern list, employees at the North Delhi Power Limited (NDPL) decided to take a big step forward and work on solutions. They shortlisted a couple of issues that needed priority intervention. One, was the visibly decreasing green cover, and the other was the looming spectre of water scarcity.

Looking around at their immediate neighbourhood, the management of NDPL decided the best solution would be to increase the plant cover at all NDPL locations. "The dream of a greener tomorrow, where a green patch of land is a common sight and the birds and the trees are not things to be seen in museums or bio-diversity parks alone, made us start a bamboo plantation drive in NDPL,'' says Dileep Kumar, assistant general manager, corporate sustainability, NDPL.

Thus began the journey to make all NDPL vacant land green. A scientific approach was used in this project. Research was conducted to select a plant that would be most viable for planting and survival. Among all the fruit-bearing trees, flowering plants and shrubs, bamboo was found to be the most suitable. The reason: bamboo releases 30 per cent more oxygen than any other green plant. Also, it does not attract ants, which makes it easier to maintain and gives it a higher chance of survival.

Once the decision to plant bamboo was taken, a representative of NDPL visited the Bamboo Coordinating Centre of GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, to get more information on the different species of bamboo. The final choice depended on factors such as the climate, location, water table and growth rate of the species to be planted.

The pilot project called for the planting of 140 bamboo saplings at the Centre for Power Efficiency in Distribution, NDPL's training centre. Sunil Wadhwa, CEO and executive director of NDPL, launched the green project by planting the first bamboo sapling. "Why do we have to wait for an Earth Day to celebrate nature, nurture trees, and plant a sapling? Every day is Earth Day. When you plant a tree, you plant hope!'' says Mr Wadhwa.

There was such an overwhelming response to the pilot project from employees who volunteered to plant and adopt more saplings that the management decided to go ahead and plant another 2,500 saplings in vacant areas at NDPL locations.

This mammoth exercise was supported and conducted as a proper management project. Logistics had to be planned, a proper costing was done and payment schedules were drawn up (each sapling would incur an additional labour and digging cost, along with manure, fertilisers, etc).

Employees at around 35 NDPL office locations planted the 2,500 bamboo saplings themselves. Staff at each establishment took ownership of the project in order to ensure the care and survival of the plants. Another highlight of the initiative was that senior citizens were involved in the planting.

A monthly management information system (MIS) was developed solely to monitor the survival and growth status of the saplings at various locations.

What was unique about this particular initiative was that it touched everyone's heart — from top management to junior employees. Senior officers would keep following up on the status of the project, and employees would keep calling asking for more plants. The involvement of NDPL employees made this a memorable experience.

The success of the bamboo plantings has led NDPL to think of and plan the next green project. "We are now moving to the next level in this campaign. Here, vacant areas in and around grids and zones are being identified to plant as many green soldiers as we can, to foster the ecological balance,'' says Mr Kumar. After all, the need of the hour is to think and act environment-friendly constantly.

Uploaded in February 2008