We planted 98 trees at Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) . It was not an easy process to do
a tree plantation here because they had planned to use large portion of this land for big
advertisements boards. After several meetings, arguments, negotiations and through
positive influences, we convinced them to plant trees instead of commercial ads.
ATTENTION
Today, I came to know that all the trees that we planted in June 2019 at the premises of
Tribhuvan International Airport has been uprooted. Some people were not positive about the idea of tree plantation as they had other plans processed with commercial intent. They were likely to put up an outdoor advertisement on this stretch of lawn. Through continual dialogue with airport authorities and concerned sectors, we altered the idea of advertising and planted around 90 flowering trees.
Why did they ruin the trees and are they going to put up an Advertisement again? I don’t know. And I am not stunned by their narrow focus and environmentally damaging decisions.
The advertisement not only inhabits the-physical environment but also seizes the social and psychological environment. The report shows that capitalists want people to work, consume unconsciously and seek pleasure in materialism. When people are caught in consumption-driven work & spend cycle, they have relatively less time to reflect on what really matters to us.
Though we signed an agreement stating the concerned parties will take care of newly planted trees, they did not adhere to the consensus. It will be just one forgotten fact among thousands of exploitations if we do not talk about it.
Here are the before and after images image to show what has been robbed and hidden. We need to do digital activism to spread information among different social streams. It is another form of protest.
I am concerned about this issue and invite all of you to use your social media as a means to demand accountability and transparency. We need to be watchful of local administration practices and the visual pollutions, consumerism, power relations, and the larger socio-ecological disruptions ahead.
The mood is right the time is now.
