At a time when governments shy away from having an Environment ministry, the Naam Tamilar Katchi political party in Tamil Nadu has a full-fledged Department of Environmental Affairs, which is taking up wide-ranging issues affecting the environs of the state.  World Sikh News proudly presents the activities of this group with the hope that it will serve as a benchmark for other political parties, non-governmental groups and activists to save Planet Earth from man-made disasters and stop the abuse of the environment by all sections of society.

SUTTRUCHOOZHAL PAASARAI IS A MOVEMENT TO PROTECT LIFE ON EARTH and the political party Naam Tamilar Katchi is spearheading this unique activity unparalleled in the history of political parties in India.  Suttruchoozhal Paasarai is the Environmental Wing of Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) dedicated to handling environmental issues to recover lost resources and to protect what remains of Mother Earth.

Early this week in the serene surroundings of Ezhil Solai, political and environmental activists converged for a meeting of the Suttruchoozhal Paasarai. NTK chief Seeman, who hails from a farming background and who champions the cause of environmental protection, presided over the function, launched the Paasarai’s non-profitable trust -Vanam Seivom and unveiled a website dedicated to environmental protection in Tamil Nadu.

As many as 400 volunteers converged at Ezhil Solai in the Uthiramerur village of Kanchipuram district to be part of the endeavour.

Speaking on the occasion Seeman said, “It is our duty to oppose any projects or policies that ought to be made or have already been made by the State or Central governments harming livelihood and natural wealth. Our Enviro-Politics will comprise of every living being on earth and not just human beings.”

“We initiated these efforts in 2010 and we are on the path of enlarging the scope of our Department of Environmental Affairs,” he added.

Vanam Seivom is the non-profitable trust, an NGO that aims to render its services to environmental issues in Tamil Nadu -providing resources for legal assistance, generation of manpower and playing a key role in creating awareness of environmental protection among the public.

Suttruchoozhal Paasarai is led by nature lover and a tree enthusiast dedicated to protecting and preserving rare and almost-extinct varieties of native trees -Maram Maasilamani.

Nature blends in harmony to rejoice when uniting beneath a canopy of leaves to celebrate and cherish what is left of the environment and hoping to make a dent that can rectify the lost bounty of mother earth and save the remaining for every living being, not just humans alone!

Maram Maasilamani lives environ-blended amidst biodiversity of animals and plants. He is the proud creator of Ezhil Solai in the Uthiramerur village of Kanchipuram district. Ezhil Solai is an agroforest and a place of biodiversity, housing vegetable and fruit-bearing plants, 1300 varieties of rare and almost-extinct native plants and boasts of an efficient rainwater harvesting system that conserves water even during the worst summer droughts. The place also serves as a sanctuary to a variety of birds and insects.

The website www.vanamseivom.org will serve as a resource centre for nature lovers and become the online hub for party cadres and the layman in the endeavours of protection of natural resources such as water, reservoirs, forests, mountains, trees, animals, mineral wealth, soil et cetera.

From the Velachery lake-adjunct clean-up in Chennai, the Kanyakumari Padmanabhapuram clean-up marathon wherein 7 lakes were desilted and made free of weeds; the rehabilitation and recovery of lands and plantations during the heavily destructive Gaja cyclone of 2018 and handing out nearly 10000 saplings of coconut for the same, planting more than two lakh palm seeds in 2018 and more than six lakh palm seeds in 2019 all over Tamil Nadu, the Suttruchoozhal Paasarai has made its mark as the key environmental group in the state.

The Paasarai boasts of its own nurseries sprouting in almost all districts of Tamilnadu. These activists have also played a major role in visiting schools in the Namakkal District of Tamilnadu thus creating awareness on the importance of planting trees and maintaining them.

Significantly, the team once launched a major clean-up, in 2018, of the Karur Amaravathi river and happened to get arrested initially in the process but was later applauded by the judge hearing the case and were released with no charges after which they managed to clean a massive 5 km-stretch of the river and handed it over for public use.

The Paasarai’s ‘Kallaru-Muthal-Kakkanalla-Varai plastic-abolishing campaign’ in 2017 was a huge success.

Naam Tamilar Katchi has held rallies and protests for issues that threaten depletion of natural resources such as the Hydrocarbon extraction, Gail pipeline laying, the Sterlite protests, the Nuclear Waste disposal project, the eight-way lane and airport expansion projects in Salem.

With the Suttruchoozhal Paasarai aiming to build a forest in every district of Tamil Nadu, the Tamils can rest assured that the environment of their beautiful state can be protected from governmental and private enterprises out to ruin them.

Naam Thamizhar Katchi’s Suttruchoozhal Paasarai is a team of young passionate volunteers with an innate knowledge of protecting nature, focussed on global calls for action against climate change and a better eco-system for all.

Nature blends in harmony to rejoice when souls of green unite beneath a canopy of leaves to celebrate and cherish what is left of the environment and hoping to make a dent that can rectify the lost bounty of mother earth and save the remaining for every living being, not just humans alone!

Vennila Thayumanavan –-A bioremediation researcher, CEO of Kanali Green Solutions and State Secretary of NTK’s environmental wing. She has taken to the roads to be loud and clear that safeguarding natural wealth to be handed over to the next generation of insects, birds, animals, plants, and trees is her life’s work.