Right now I am sitting in front of the first Miyawaki forest we planted in Kerala. It will turn three years old on January 30 or 31. Hereafter, we will not do anything to maintain it. The forest will be left to fend for itself. Of the 400 saplings belonging to 100 different species that we planted, 80 or 90 % of them remain. Some have begun to die. A few new plants have sprouted but we have removed those belonging to invasive species. The growth rate of this forest is simply amazing. All the trees have grown to more than 30 feet in height in these three years. In fact, we have pruned and kept them at 15 or 18 feet. But it is a different subject that I want to speak about today.
We have created forests at various places and all of them are flourishing. Everyone’s happy on seeing them especially because the afforestation programme has not been a huge success in our state. Most people send me messages blaming the Forest Department, remarking that it is wasting public money, the forests it puts up do not thrive and so on, whereas our forests are a huge success. The fact is that the Forest Department is a government organ, and has many limitations. As individuals or as a private company, we can adopt a new idea and conduct the Miyawaki experiment. But at the government level, an idea has to be successfully experimented with at several other places, before it can be taken up.
Already, the Forest Department in Kerala is actively involved in the Miyawaki afforestation. Perhaps not many people are aware of it. Let me inform you that it gave us permission to set up forests at three places that belong to them. One, a three cent plot at Mudikkod at Thrissur, near the highway. The other, at the Bio Park at Nedumbassery. And the third, near the Neyyar Dam. We put up the forests at our expense with support from the Forest Department, in order to make a study in comparison. The place allotted to us at the Neyyar Dam site is shady. So the growth rate of the Miyawaki forest there may not be very impressive. But at the other two areas, the forests are showing appreciable growth.
Besides these, we have put up a Miyawaki forest in a 10-cent plot near the Forest Training Institute at Walayar in Palakkad that belongs to the Kerala Development and Innovation Strategic Council (K-DISC), with the co-operation of the officials employed there. This was part of a training programme for the officers concerned. Even as we are involved in this afforestation programme, the Forest Department is studying our work on an in-depth scale. High-ranking officers are keeping tabs on the number of saplings, their growth rates and the types of species that can be changed, while exploring how the expenses can be decreased. Such a study is important because a government wing like the Forest Department handles public money and is accountable for it.
Another significant feature is that while the forests nurtured by the Forest Department record a growth of one metre, ours show a growth of up to three metres. This difference is because the department follows a traditional method. A point to be remembered is that whereas we spend Rs 400 on a one-sq.-foot segment, the department does not have so much money to spare. Our heavy expenses are due to 150 kg or more of organic material that we use in order to prepare the seedbed. Besides, we plant only those saplings in our forest that have been nurtured in grow bags filled with potting mixture. The price of a sapling depends on the quantity of potting mixture it grows in. We nurture them in grow bags till they develop healthy root systems and only then transfer them to the site in order to put up a forest.
At the moment, the Forest Department does not follow such a procedure. It has adopted the system of Social Forestry by planting thousands of saplings over thousands of acres during the rainy season. What we execute is in plots of five or 10 cents. So it is easy for us to take necessary precautions while following our method. Therefore we should encourage our Forest Department to the fullest extent possible. I’m sure it will turn to the Miyawaki Method of Afforestation in the future. It is already convinced of the effectiveness of the method, and has initiated steps in that direction.
So, instead of blaming the department, let us do our job, and go ahead with our method until we find a better one. I’m sure the Forest Department will eventually adopt the Miyawaki Method. If not, it would not have co-operated with us in this project and supplied us with saplings. The Forest Department is still only in the initial stages of transition. That is because government policies take more than three years to change. A lot of study and research has to be completed before a new policy can be put in place. Hopefully, in six years’ time, we will see a change. Let us understand the limitations of the officials and the governmental system. It may not be right on our part to insist that they foist a new experiment on the land and its people.