Mission Green Mumbai, a non-profit organisation with a self-explanatory name signifying it is dedicated to the greening of Mumbai, has started a campaign to collect seeds of custard apple or sitaphal in an endeavour to plant and grow more sitaphal trees in the city. The initiative is based on the premise that sitaphal trees are not just for farms, and that organisations with some space, housing societies with a compact space for plants, and individuals with small gardens, too, can grow these trees in their space.

Versatile

Mission Green Mumbai founder Subhajit Mukherjee said, “This is called the ‘Custard Apple Seed Collection Movement’. It is a highly useful tree and can be planted both in urban or rural environments and in forest areas too. This plant needs relatively less water to grow. We are aiming to collect at least 10 lakh seeds. Then, these seeds are going to be distributed to different nurseries, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in the green space and the Forest Department.”