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Nature as created by Iswara (the almighty) maintains harmony of pancha boothas (five elements), namely air, water, sky, heat, and land. We are witnessing a rising pattern of natural calamities in the form of cyclones, earthquakes, rising temperatures, seasonal variations and rising chronic and infectious diseases. The cause of these calamities is due to disturbance and imbalance in these five elements – which can be attributed to humans in terms of polluting water, air, land, our ozone layer and rising temperatures. We have to act now and undo some of these balances by protecting our environment for us and our future generations.

On October 12th Cyclone Hudhud made landfall near Visakhapatnam with wind speeds of 175 km/h. This cyclone has caused extensive damage to the city of Visakhapatnam and its neighboring areas causing 109 deaths and huge destruction that amounts to 70000 crores. The biggest impact of this cyclone is to the greenery of Visakhapatnam where more than 70% of its trees are destroyed. This environmental disaster will have serious impacts to our well-being in many ways. Trees serve a very important purpose. They provide pranavayuvu (oxygen), clean the pollutants, and also retain and purify ground water. They also provide shade, food and flowers for us to consume. The ecological imbalance due to loss of species that depend on these trees while not well understood are likely to have serious long term consequences such as rise in pests.

Trees are god’s gifts to mankind and maintain harmony in our environment. Your small effort or contribution towards making vizag green can make a big impact to our community. Please plant trees in your neighborhoods, schools, colleges, companies and take care of them – so they will take care of you and your future generations. You can also use the makemyvizaggreen project as a vehicle to plant a tree your name, your family, your friends or your favorite deity’s name from anywhere in the world -- so that the devastation caused by this cyclone to our environment and to us is minimized, and our future generations will not have to bear the serious consequences caused by this cyclone.

Sarve Jana Sukhino Bhavanthu!