Around 9000 saplings to be planted on 2.8 hectares forest land
Bivek Mathur
JAMMU, July 27: The Forest Department is set to collaborate with the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) to raise the first State-owned Miyawaki forest-cum-Smriti Van in the Jammu district of the Union Territory.
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Named after Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, a Miyawaki forest is developed in a short span of time by planting a variety of native trees and shrubs close together, mimicking a natural forest ecosystem and accelerating growth. As per reports, the Miyawaki forests grow 10 times faster, 30 times denser and 100 times more bio-diverse than the traditional forests. Similarly, Smriti Van is a concept of establishing a forest in the memory of any prominent personality of the country.
A senior Forest Department official said the project, planned at the cost of Rs 6-6.5 lakh under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, envisages raising a dense Miyawaki forest on a barren forest land of 2.8 hectares at Qasim Nagar area of the district.
“Along with JMC, we’ve planned to plant some 8000-9000 saplings of different varieties using the Miyawaki method of plantation on a barren forest land within the premises of Old Timber Sale Depot at Qasim Nagar area. The project will be fully funded under the NCAP programme,” Ashwani Kumar, DFO Urban Forestry Division Jammu, told the Excelsior.
According to him, this is the first such high-density Miyawaki forest being set up by the UT Government on a huge chunk of land in the Jammu district. Privately, a Jammu based volunteer group, EcoRider, in collaboration with EcoSikh, a transnational environmental movement based in Punjab, has already raised a small Miyawaki forest on a land measuring 160 square meters (0.31 Kanal) at Bhour Camp area of the district and have named it as “Guru Nanak Sacred Jungle” as it was established to commemorate the 550th birth anniversary of the Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak Dev Ji.
After the success of the Qasim Nagar project, DFO Urban Forestry Division Jammu, Ashwani Kumar said the Forest Department has been planning to raise another Miyawaki forest on a JDA land at Sector 4, Roop Nagar area, which was earlier used as a dumping site by the locals.
“We’ve cleared the heaps of dumps from this site and turned this facility into a Van Vatika. After successfully raising a Miyawaki forest at Qasim Nagar, we will raise another Miyawaki forest at Roop Nagar,” he said.
On expected date of establishing the first-ever Miyawaki forest in Jammu district, he said, “We’ve already started cleaning the forest land at Qasim Nagar. With the current pace of work, we’re hopeful that it would be raised within a period of one year.”
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