How to grow a mini forest in a year

UDUPI:  A tiny two-cent patch of land in Katpady town in coastal Karnataka isn’t quite the Western Ghats, but close. Spatially and figuratively. It houses a minuscule fraction of the richness of the Western Ghats which is roughly 30km away. The plot of land in Udupi district is owned by Mahesh Shenoy, a 43-year-old businessman, and used to be fallow until a year ago. But today, his son Ameya, who is in Class 10, and daughter Anvitha, who is in Class 7, are growing up watching a Miyawaki forest grow.

Discussions with friends in Bengaluru introduced Mahesh to the concept of a Miyawaki forest. He researched online, and learned more about the urban afforestation method using local species of plants and trees created by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki.

Enamoured by the idea, he and his friends – Vishu Shetty, Ganeshraj Saralebettu, Nithyanand Volakad and Ravi Katapady -- who also live in Udupi, formed a group called Organic Living, and got to work to create what might be Udupi district’s first Miyawaki forest. “Miyawaki promoted natural vegetation by raising mini forests along Japan’s coastline. I have adapted that model and customised it for the weather conditions of Udupi,” Mahesh says.

Mahesh and his friends dug up the soil on October 13, 2019, added manure, and monitored its nutrition levels for three months. Meanwhile, they chose the species they would plant. In January 2020, they planted around 220 saplings including teakwood, rosewood, Indian beech, neem, and almond -- procured from government-run nurseries and acquaintances --- a metre apart. “Amid problems of increasing groundwater depletion and rising urban heat, this Japanese method of forest creation is a ray of hope,” Mahesh says. “Many did not believe me, and said it was impossible, but I proved them wrong.”

Using conventional methods, a teakwood sapling would grow a couple of feet a year, but under the Miyawaki method, it grows about 6-10 feet a year. Some of the trees are 15-20 feet tall, have thick branches, belying the fact that they are barely a year old, and are home to dozens of birds. Mahesh named the forest Ganapathy Vana, after his grandfather.

Gowri Shenoy, Mahesh’ wife, became a full-fledged supporter of the venture when she learned that the forest would need work for only about two years, after which it would take care of itself. During the past year, Mahesh has worked hard to ensure that the four-layer forest in his backyard was watered, weeded and manured. He pretty much single-handedly took care of the work. He spent Rs 40,000 including the cost of saplings and manure.

Although Vanamahotsava is observed during the monsoon each year, in Mahesh’s view, “Vanamahotsava is not yielding much result, but creating a forest under this method is practicable. I want to show people that anybody can have a mini-forest in their backyard,” he says.