The recent rains have brought some respite to Chennaiites. But, we haven’t forgotten the kodumai that kathiri veyil was. With cyclone Vardah destroying the city’s green cover, Chennai experienced record temperatures last month and Chennaiites were left sweltering.
Our city has been victim to nature’s fury many a time and there was little we could do about it. However, city folks are coming together and doing their bit in restoring Chennai’s green canopy. One of the latest attempts at this was made by Thuvakkam, an NGO operating from Chennai.
The volunteers at Thuvakkam make seed balls and scattered it across the city. The technique of making seed balls involve mixing seeds with mud and cow dung to make it into a ball, thus safeguarding it from flying away. This also improve the seeds’ longevity as chances of it getting consumed by animals or blown away by wind are reduced. Thuvakkam has been conducting trekking programs in an attempt to drop the seed balls across various places in Chennai, the latest being Tirusulam hills.

The team made around 1500+ seed balls and the volunteers trekked up to Tirusulam mount to scatter the seed balls. Tamarind, neem and gulmohar seeds are usually used for making seed balls as those are easily available. The volunteers at Thuvakkam considers Seed Balls as an attempt at giving nature the extra boost it needs to recreate the natural balance on earth.
Thuvakkam is celebrating Eco week till June 11th with the theme – “Connecting People to Nature” and is conducting various activities across Chennai.
Here are the details of the eco-week events conducted by Thuvakkam
Featured Image Source: fb/Thuvakkam