Surat: The diamond city is all set to witness a unique petathlon-2020 event where the participants will be given seed-balls to spread the message, ‘grow more trees’.
More than 250 pet lovers from the city are expected to participate with their pet animals and birds at the Petathlon-2020 to be organized by Animal Friend, a non-government organization (NGO) on February 9.
The Petathlon will kick-start from Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (SVNIT) and culminate at Kargil Chowk on Piplod where the pet lovers and the organizers will create an awareness on growing more trees by distributing about 2,020 seed balls to people.
The pet lovers, who will participate with their pet animals and birds such as horses, dogs, macau, African grey, lizards etc., will help the volunteers in spreading awareness on loving the animals and growing more trees.
Sudhir Shah, founder of Animal Friend, told TOI, “This is the first time that the seed-ball concept has been introduced in the city. The seed-balls are made by our volunteers. There are three types of native tree seeds including garmado, paras-pilal and billipatra.”The native plant seeds are covered with clay, moss and coco peat to make small round balls. Since these seeds will grow as big trees, the residents wanting the seed-balls will be provided with a complete information on choosing the fertile land around their houses to develop the seeds into plants. According to Shah, his NGO has been organizing the Petathlon event once in a year since 2014. The event is organized every year on different themes such as ‘beti bachao, beti padhao’, ‘say no to plastics’, ‘jal hai to kaal hai’, ‘save trees’ etc.
“The seed balls may be small in numbers, but they will add up to the green cover in the city. The people taking the seed-balls will have to take an oath to nourish the trees. After the success, we intend to come up with a huge event in the city ahead of the monsoon season where thousands of seed-balls will be distributed to the residents,” said Shah.