TEHRAN -- Tehran Mayor Mohammad Ali Najafi has called on Tehrani citizens to plant a tree while they are growing sabzeh for their Haft Seen.

Iranians grow, wheat, barley, mung bean or lentil sprouts in a dish and put it on Haft Seen (an arrangement of seven symbolic items traditionally displayed at Noruz, Iranian celebration of the New Year, as a ritual done since long time ago.)

He made the remarks days before Iran’s National Tree Planting Day, which is annually celebrated on the fifteenth day of the last month on Iranian calendar month of Esfand, which usually corresponds with March 5. 

This day is the first day of the Natural Resources Week, which is celebrated March 5 to 12.

On this day, the saplings of the all kinds in terms of different climates of different parts of Iran would be planted by the people. 

“Let’s plant a tree while growing Sabzeh for Haft Seen and transplant it to your yard after Noruz Holiday,” he proposed.

Tehrani citizens who don’t have yard to transplant the tree can transfer their plant to 12 hectare greenbelt, which was established by the Tehran Municipality and will be inaugurated in coming days.

He urged Terhani citizens to help municipality to preserve the urban vegetation and NGOs to support activities of municipality to promote green areas in the city.

Plant trees to grace Vali-e Asr Street again

Tehran Municipality began to plant 740 15-year-old plane trees in Vali-e Asr Street from March 2 to 20 from Bozorgmehr intersection to Taleqani intersection.

The project was started on Friday with a ceremony attended by Najafi.

During the event, Najafi called tree as the ‘God blessing’ and pointed to the important role of trees in the city of Tehran, which was previously known as ‘Chenarestan’, which literally means ‘plane tree field’.

“The Vali-e Asr Street, one of the longest streets in the Middle East, was known for its 18,000 street plane trees. The number of trees were decreased to 16,000 during recent years and Tehran Municipality tries to save others by scientific studies,” Najafi explained.

 Mismanagement kills Tehran’s trees

The main problem with plane trees on Vali-e Asr Street is the absence of urban management to preserve them, Professor in urban & environmental horticulture told the Persian service of ISNA.

He said that concrete and blacktop limit the roots of trees.

Skyscrapers and high buildings limited the light for photosynthesis of plants in the city and groundwater depletion by mismanagement of water resources in Tehran makes the trees dries, he lamented.

May be thinking twice about planting trees and urban green spaces brings another chance to Tehrani citizens to benefit from more trees in different parts of the metropolitan and to enjoy from bird songs and clean air in coming year.

SB/MQ/MG