A forest in the heart of Thiruvananthapuram

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A five cent plot right in the heart of the city is set to turn into a forest land. At least 200 species of plants, including creepers, subtrees, shrubs, trees, and emergent trees will grow tall, and swathe the whole area in green. The Kanakakunnu Palace grounds is richer by 800 saplings. And by two years time, it will boast of a healthy foliage. In three years, you will have a forest right in the city.
The project is being pioneered by Kerala Tourism and the saplings were planted at the Kanakakunnu premises on Wednesday. The green lung is being created using the Akira Miyawaki method of afforestation. A dense foliage will be created in the small pocket of land which will turn into a natural forest in a few years.

“Preserving the environment figures is the Tourism Department's policy. Miyawaki's method is suited for creating green spaces in regions that have space constraints. Through this, we are also attempting to create awareness amongst the people on the need to preserve the environment and encourage them to be an active proponent of afforestation,” said an official attached to the Tourism Minister's office.

“There are many tourist destinations which we have lost due to irresponsible development. The department is pioneering several projects to preserve nature. There are plans to build these forest patches using the Miyawaki method across the state,” he added. The project is being led by the NGO 'Nature's Green Guardians Foundation' and is being sponsored by Invis Multimedia, ICT solution provider of Kerala Tourism.

800 saplings were planted in a day on the bed prepared using a mixture of soil, coir pith, dried cow dung and rice hull. Drip irrigation system is arranged and fencing with nets has been set up on  four sides of freshly created green bed. The plants were sourced from various nurseries across the state. A healthy mix of diverse varieties of trees have been chosen, including medicinal plants.

“It will take only two years and you will have a good canopy here. An intense afforestation drive needs to be carried out to check global warming. Miyawaki method is ideal and can be set up in small spaces where you will get a dense foliage in a short span of time. You can even set up a forest this way in one cent of land,” said Hari MR, managing director, Invis Multimedia.

“The idea is to set up Oxy groves in all tourism destinations. Earlier, there used to be groves in all traditional houses. They used to cover at least four cents of space and used to act as carbon sinks. This has depleted to a large extend. We are trying to reinstate all that using the Miyawaki method. Intense afforestation is the only solution to the environmental catastrophe which we have created,” said Hari Prabhakaran of Nature's Green Guardians Foundation.