Surat: As many as 200 trees at the Surat’s first micro forest developed through the Miyawaki forestation method were burnt by some unidentified miscreants behind the Railway Protection Force Colony at Udhana railway station.
The urban forest was being jointly developed by the Western Railway (WR) and the environmentalists, who are now demanding strict action against the culprits.
A senior RPF officer at Udhana railway station told TOI, “It might have happened that someone would have burnt something inside the forest and that may have destroyed the trees. This is a heinous act to destroy a micro forest. An inquiry will be done to find the culprits.”
Miyawaki forestation method has been is pioneered by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki. In this technique, various native species of plans are planted close to each other so that the greens receive sunlight only from the top and grow upwards rather than sideways.
The micro urban forest is spread on 19,000 square feet land behind the RPF colony at Udhana railway station. It was developed in remembrance of the Indian Martyrs and was named as ‘Shahid Smriti Van’. The forest has about 1,100 different species of trees including fruits, herbs, native trees such as Pipal, Drum Stick, Borsalli, Sitafal, Badam, Gulmohar, Mango etc.
Viral Desai, environmentalist and textile business, who is the brain behind the micro forest told TOI, “It was very shocking. How could someone damage full-grown trees in such a manner. The miscreants literally burnt about 200 trees without any reason.”
“The work on forest began in December last year and within just 10 months we were able to nurture the trees and that they were 12-feet tall and growing.”
Another environmentalist, Nainesh Parekh told TOI, “Hope there will be strict vigil to prevent such incidents in the future. It takes a lot of hard work, time, commitment and money to create such forests in urban areas.”