We are a student-led club comprised of students from various schools across India, united in our mission to liberate trees from concrete and safeguard the environment.
Our inception in 2020 was prompted by a tragic incident wherein over 600 trees fell within a brief period, resulting in casualties. Focused on making a positive impact, we have initiated campaigns in Delhi, Gurgaon, and Faridabad, aligning our efforts with the National Green Tribunal's 2013 directive. This order emphasizes the necessity of leaving a 1-meter radius around trees to facilitate water percolation and ensure the unimpeded growth of these vital elements of our environment.
We have successfully liberated over 650 trees in Gurgaon and 300 trees in South Delhi. Our noteworthy achievements were recognized with the prestigious Global Sustainability Award, presented by the Honorable Minister of State for Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, Mr. Ashwini Kumar Chaubey.
Cementing or concreting around a tree can be profoundly detrimental to its health and growth. When concrete directly encases the tree or covers the soil surrounding it, it severely impedes the tree's ability to thrive. Adequate soil space, at least one meter in diameter around the tree, is crucial to ensure unrestricted growth.
Concrete obstructs the natural seepage of water into the soil, depriving the tree's roots of essential moisture. This barrier prevents the vital flow of water required for both photosynthesis and respiration processes. As roots serve as the primary conduit for water absorption, their inability to access water halts the tree's growth. The presence of concrete is directly responsible for this stagnation.
Furthermore, roots play a pivotal role in stabilizing the tree, providing the necessary anchorage for its upright posture. Without sufficient water reaching the roots, they weaken, compromising their grip in the soil. This weakened anchorage significantly increases the risk of trees being uprooted, particularly during storms. Thus, concrete not only causes root dehydration but also heightens the likelihood of accidents resulting from tree instability.
But other environmental impacts are far less well understood. Concrete is a thirsty behemoth, sucking up almost a 10th of the world’s industrial water use. In cities, concrete also adds to the heat-island effect by absorbing the warmth of the sun and trapping gases from car exhausts and air-conditioner units – though it is, at least, better than darker asphalt.
This touches on the most severe, but least understood, impact of concrete, which is that it destroys natural infrastructure without replacing the ecological functions that humanity depends on for fertilisation, pollination, flood control, oxygen production and water purification.
Concrete can take our civilisation upwards, up to 163 storeys high in the case of the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, creating living space out of the air. But it also pushes the human footprint outwards, sprawling across fertile topsoil and choking habitats. The biodiversity crisis – which many scientists believe to be as much of a threat as climate chaos – is driven primarily by the conversion of wilderness to agriculture, industrial estates and residential blocks.
For hundreds of years, humanity has been willing to accept this environmental downside in return for the undoubted benefits of concrete. But the balance may now be tilting in the other direction.
The roots of a tree tend to spread as much as the canopy spreads and concretisation around its base does not allow water to reach the side roots, which shrivel and weaken the tree as well.