SayTrees is operational in 13 states and 3 union territories across India, with intensive work in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu
About SayTrees
SayTrees isn’t your average bunch of tree huggers (though we definitely appreciate a good huggable tree!). We’re a passionate community of climate change combatants, local solutions, and remarkable support systems. We partner with eco-warriors, businesses, and anyone who wants to make a difference. Together, we plant trees, revive water bodies, manage waste, and create a greener future for all. With 100+ Green Zones, we’ve sprouted over 7 lakh trees in urban areas and a whopping 22 lakh+ through agroforestry. We do have dauntless ambitions for our blue zones. Starting our groundwater and surface water rejuvenation journey in 2018, our goal is to increase the water-holding capacity by 100 billion liters by 2035.
SayTrees is operational in 13 states and 03 union territories across India, with intensive work in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu. Other states include Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand. Union territories include Delhi, Goa, and Ladakh.
From Passion for Nature to Solution Seeker
Driven by a deep love for Bengaluru’s greenery, Kapil wasn’t one to stand idly by as our tree diversity visibly dwindled over the last decade. In 2007, he founded SayTrees in response to his concern for nature and its arboreal guardians. Kapil saw the crisis of decreasing tree diversity and dwindling water accessibility as congruent. So, keeping his action profoundly in two core areas of intervention, afforestation and water conservation, he was up against more than meets the eye. With devouring urbanisation, the exclusion of natural assets was growing at a compounding rate, which was hard to match with the funds and resources required for plantations.
It is a mammoth task to mobilise resources that could help with plantations and lake rejuvenations, and hence we have been working with many top conglomerates and companies who care for the well-being of our planet, who invest in our interventions. In Bengaluru, with over 40,000 lakes in the primordial period, up until colonial Bengaluru, we were left with 1000 lakes. Things got sinister post-1961, recording 262 lakes, and the last count taken by the city’s environmentalists indicates that there are only 81 left, and these are degraded to unimaginable conditions with sewage and plastics, leaving no room for water-based ecosystems to survive in a lake. Recent studies have also shown that the holding capacity (in lakes/ponds) decreased by 50 percent in 2024; the aftermath of encroachment and construction debris are other evils you can identify in our current lakes.
The shock is yet to hit you. Despite the alarming fall in green cover, thanks to natural elevation, for over the past 5 years leading up to 2022, rainfall has been consistently ample, especially evident through the robust South West Monsoon. However, despite this blessing from nature, our water management practices leave much to be desired. Take, for example, the case of Bengaluru: in 2018, the city received 1,033.2 mm of rainfall. Fast forward to 2022, and this figure escalated to 1,956.7 mm, marking an astounding 89 percent surge in annual precipitation over the span of just five years. These statistics not only underscore a significant increase in average rainfall but also illuminate the glaring deficiencies in storage capacity and overall water management strategies plaguing Bengaluru and likely other regions as well. So, it’s not the lack of rain; it’s the lack of empathy towards the rainwater, lack of understanding of how groundwater ecosystems work, derailment from our ancestral ways of co-living with nature, and abandoning nature in infrastructural planning.
Scaling interventions that respect and sustain our water ecosystem are now Kapil’s relentless pursuit, as plagued and sympathised is the city as forgotten are our rural, remote farmlands where farmers who grow for the nation struggle for irrigation in their farmland. We are aiming to increase the water-holding capacity by 100 billion litres by 2035, which will require 200+ crores. These numbers are dauntless, but if money can buy anything, let it buy you sensitivity towards our natural assets, let it connect you with nature, and let it thrive in co-existence with the wonders of our planet.
Interested in joining us, supporting us, or voicing and volunteering with us? Write to info@saytrees.org.
But when money can buy a future where we thrive alongside nature, the investment is worth it.