To save water, Chitlapakkam residents in Chennai adopt Japanese afforestation technique

  • | Monday | 12th August, 2019

After getting permission from the town panchayat, they planted 30 trees in a total space of 120 square feet with two feet gap between each tree. What is Miyawaki method? In the 80s, Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki introduced this method of reforestation to restore indigenous ecosystems. This innovate information had reached the Chitlapakkam residents through a local news channel. It takes four days to set up a tree under the Miyawaki method.

Omjasvin MD By Express News Service CHENNAI: After Chitlapakkam faced one of the worst water crises this summer, the residents have quickly adopted innovative ways to preserve water to prevent another scarcity.About 50 residents including children teamed up on Sunday at the SBI Colony park in Chitlapakkam to create a ‘mini-forest’ by planting trees through the ‘Miyawaki’ method, the Japanese way of planting more trees in less space, with faster growth. After getting permission from the town panchayat, they planted 30 trees in a total space of 120 square feet with two feet gap between each tree. What is Miyawaki method? In the 80s, Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki introduced this method of reforestation to restore indigenous ecosystems. Under this method, the top-soil of a selected region is recovered to a depth of 20 to 30 cm by mixing soil and organic compost. According to a 2010 journal on the effectiveness of the Miyawaki method, positive afforestation results were observed in many parts of the world in just two years, whereas it normally takes a decade for trees to achieve complete growth. The journal says this is a reliable way to create “native forest by native trees”. This innovate information had reached the Chitlapakkam residents through a local news channel. “Once we saw it, we immediately decided to adopt this method in streets and parks,’’ says Jaikumar of Chitlapakkam Rising, an NGO that volunteered for the lake restoration. It takes four days to set up a tree under the Miyawaki method. Under the ‘Greening Chitlapakkam’ cause, the residents gathered in the SBI Colony park every morning in the last week to dig up pits which were of four feet. The pits were left to dry for one day after that. “Sugarcane bagasse, vermicompost, dry leaves, cocopeat, and other manure were mixed with sand and dumped in the dry pit for three days,’’ says Jaikumar. Following this, the saplings were planted. Dinakaran R, another volunteer of Chitlapakkam Rising, said that after surveying the natural habitat of the locality, they decided to plant a variety of trees. “Veppamaram (neem), poovarasan (portia tree), naval maram (java plum), thekku maram (teak), and iluppai (mahua) were planted,’’ he said.

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