Greenery in the Chennai city has never had it so bad. Nearly three weeks after the Forest department formally handed over 35,000 saplings to the Chennai Corporation as part of the second phase of the central government funded Green Belt for Abatement of Pollution in Greater Chennai, the civic body is yet to come up with a mechanism for maintaining the one-year-old trees. Of 95,000 saplings handed over under the first phase last year, at least 65 per cent have already perished.