Fruit Tree Plantations

As a child I used to love sitting under the shade of Mango trees in our garden and looking at the clear blue skies munching raw mangoes. This is a joy that very few of children born in cities get to enjoy today. I love trees and I love fruit trees even more. 

The IT industry in Pune (and also India) has generally modeled their buildings and its landscape after their American counterparts. Most Indian IT Office Buildings have glass facade. These are surrounded by well manicured lawns with flowering plants and shrubs. 

Do you find it beautiful to look at such building and their well maintained gardens? I find this sad. I am not an expert on architecture or design and hope some of you out there will chip in to this blog with your knowledge and understanding about these buildings architecture and landscapping. But I feel sad about these lifeless buildings and there are many reasons for that. 

A few I list out here:

1.    The lawns need a large amount of water for their maintenance.

2.    The shrubs and tiny trees are not useful for birds for building their nest

3.    There is no shade from trees

4.    It all looks aesthetically nice but is not useful for humans or animals

5.    The Landscape does not have a cooling effect on the building

I want us to rethink about landscape around our office building. Why can’t we change it for something better and useful for us and our society? 

I have been thinking about it for a long time and feel that one of the solutions could be that we plant fruit trees all around our office building.

Advantages could be :

·         Improving the environment and combating global warming through the known benefits trees

have for the air, soil, and water

·         Helping animals by providing habitat, shade, shelter, and nutrition

· E  mpowering volunteers to take action for their environment and in their own lives

·          Enriching communities by creating beautiful, healthy landscapes that benefit overall well-being

·        Alleviating hunger and improving health by providing essential human nutrition from fruits, the IT companies can donate the fruits to orphanages and needy shelters. 

     What do you think? Are there any IT companies you know which do something like this?