After Kotturpuram, Chennai to soon have its 2nd Miyawaki forest in Sholinganallur

CHENNAI: The city corporation Commissioner G Prakash, on Sunday, inaugurated the Miyawaki forest project in School Road, Sholinganallur zone.

The civic body intends to plant around 2,800 tree saplings in a 15,586 square-feet land that belongs to it in ward 197.

Earlier, the city Corporation had developed a Miyawaki forest in 20,724 square feet of the 23,800-square-feet of Chennai Corporation's land in Kotturpuram under the Adyar zone. At a cost of Rs 20 lakhs, 2000 trees of 40 different varieties were planted and are being maintained.

In a similar project in Valasaravakkam's Rayala Nagar second main road in ward 155, 762 saplings of 45 species were planted in 6,000 square feet of the 10,000 square feet OSR Open Space Reservation land belonging to the city corporation. The trees were planted at a one-metre distance from each other and the project was done at a cost of Rs 8.72 lakhs.

The Japanese technique of Miyawaki refers to planting native species in the same area. Since the saplings are planted within close distances to each other, it blocks sunlight from falling to the ground and prevents the growth of weeds. So, forests created by this method are expected to not need much maintenance after the first three years.

Moreover, this method, named after Botanist Akira Miyawaki who pioneered it, encourages trees to grow upwards instead of sideways to allow forestation in small urban spaces.