A living civic archive — built by citizens, students, and scientists walking ward by ward through Mangaluru. Every tree has a name, a location, a girth, a height, a canopy. Every tree has a story.
Allow location access. We find the closest verified tree from 95,000+ in the archive — its species, measurements, age, what it's rooted in, and its Nakshatra. Then open Google Maps to walk there now.
In Vedic tradition, each of the 27 Nakshatras is associated with a specific tree — your Vriksha Devata, your tree deity. Spending time near it is said to strengthen the qualities of your birth star. We have mapped these trees in Mangaluru. Select your Nakshatra and we will tell you where yours is.
A 200-year-old Banyan in Ward 7 was a sapling when Hyder Ali's forces marched through this coast. A Peepal in Ward 12 was already old when the first Portuguese ships anchored here. A Neem in the old quarter has seen seven generations of the same family grow up beneath it.
The census is a living document — not a report filed and archived. Every week new trees are verified and added. Every new volunteer covers more streets. Click any ward to explore its trees.
Open data policy: everything we collect is publicly available. Download the full dataset. Analyse it. Build with it. This archive belongs to Mangaluru.
Mangaluru currently has 6.24% green cover. The WHO recommends 9 trees per person. Singapore has 29%. New York has 21%. Mangaluru is a coastal city in one of the world's 36 biodiversity hotspots — and its trees are being quietly lost to cement, road-widening, and construction without replacement.
A city at 30% tree cover is 2–4°C cooler on summer afternoons. It absorbs 50% more stormwater, reducing flooding in the laterite soil zones. Air particulate levels drop measurably. Residents live longer.
Mangaluru receives 3,000mm of rain annually. Its laterite soil is ideal for native trees. There is no ecological reason for 6.24% green cover. Only accumulated neglect.
The Amara Initiative has planted 11,000+ native trees and 40,000 mangroves since 2024. This is the beginning. It requires 55 trees per day, every day, for 15 years to reach 30%.
Help plant a tree →Tree walks are monthly — led by Dr. Smitha Hegde and the Research Centre team, and open to anyone who shows up. Students bring notebooks. Parents bring children. Researchers bring questions. Everyone leaves with a different relationship with the city they live in.
Schools: register at research@tlc.edu.in · Public walks: no registration needed · Just show up
Register for a Walk →It was built by citizens. It is maintained by citizens. It grows when more people walk more streets and look more carefully at the trees that are already here.
Trees need three things: people to document them, people to plant more, and resources to make both possible. Your donation funds field equipment, sapling procurement, volunteer training, and the maintenance of this archive.
All contributions go through The Learning Centre Trust, registered in Karnataka. Receipts provided. Eligible for CSR under Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013.
For CSR contributions: The Learning Centre Trust is a registered educational trust. We can provide all documentation required for CSR compliance under Schedule VII. Write to research@tlc.edu.in.
The Trees of Mangaluru community meets monthly to review the census, plan the next planting drive, discuss policy, and hear from members who have been doing tree walks or monitoring. All are welcome.
Follow the trees of Mangaluru.
Instagram when a new tree is added, a walk happens, or a threatened tree is saved. YouTube for the longer stories — census walks, plantation drives, Nakshatra tree encounters.