Mumbai, Jan 6 (PTI) A unique "nail-free trees" campaign carried out in Maharashtra's Kolhapur city recently, under which 5,000 nails hammered on trees were removed, should be replicated in other parts of the state, a minister has said.

Under this drive held on January 3, nails hammered on trees to hang advertisements, hoardings, banners were removed in this city in western Maharashtra.

More than 2,500 volunteers of different NGOs and 600 local residents took part in this activity.

In a statement, Kolhapur's district guardian Minister Satej Patil, who is also the Minister of State for Home, said that at some places 30 to 40 nails were found hammered on a single tree.

In order to remove the nails, panels, wires and angles stuck on the trees, the volunteers used ladders and pliers, he said.

"We also used gas cutters to remove the iron brackets, chains hammered on some trees. The trees must have breathed a sigh of relief as the nails, which were there for that last many years, were removed. The central system of the tree, with its water and food flow system, gets ruptured due to nailing and this hampers its growth," Patil said.

"But our responsibility is not over yet. From now on, we all have to take responsibility that no one nails trees in Kolhapur. It is a criminal offense under the law to injure a tree. I instructed the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) to issue an order saying that hitting nails on a tree will be punishable," the minister said.

Patil has appealed for this campaign to be implemented across the state of Maharashtra.

"Considering the damage being done to the environment and the importance of trees, I appeal to the people not to limit the campaign to Kolhapur alone but to implement it across the state," he said.

"Planting and growing new trees is great, but safeguarding the existing ones is also a big responsibility. Whether they are public or in personal space, it is our duty to make them nail-free.

"We forget that trees also have life. We feel the pain if even a small nail pierces us, so imagine what trees go through when big nails are hammered into them. With this in mind, the idea of implementing the 'nail-free trees of Kolhapur' campaign was put forward to the NGOs in the city," he added.

Patil said more than 5,000 nails were plucked out of the trees and around 300 banners put up on them were removed.

Talking to PTI, Uday Gaikwad, who represents a local NGO, said there were 5.67 lakh trees in the KMC limits and every year more than 10,000 new trees are planted.

"We noticed that most of the trees have been disfigured due to advertisements, hoardings, banners nailed on them. Instead of the administration taking action of removing them, it was decided to make the people act like a watchdog," he said.

"More than 53 organisations participated in the nail- free trees of Kolhapur campaign on January 3. Due to the involvement of the local population, we are sure that such disfigurement will not happen again," Gaikwad said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)