Recently I have been getting questions as to whether a forest can be put up in a field. A single answer is difficult to give because it depends on the nature of the soil. How long it has lain fallow and what was done there later are also crucial factors as they affect the quality of the soil. Let me give you an example. I bought this plot 11 years back. It was a field then. Usually people raise the level using landfill. I did not do it because I had no plans to construct a house. Besides, I wanted to maintain its beauty as a field. Paddy cultivation had been stopped nearly 30 years before I purchased it. These coconut trees stood here back then. They must be 40 years old now. Banana plants had been grown here.
What I did first was to dig small channels on four sides and put bridges across them. I resorted to it because this is the last place in the area where runoff collects. There is a canal close by. So if I block these channels, water from this plot will overflow through the side. Besides, I had no objection to having channels in my plot. They made this place look like a countryside. Later I planted a lot of trees here. But the problem I faced was that my caretaker was a great believer in tilling the land regularly. Despite being told not to disturb the land, he tilled it whenever the place was overrun by wild growth after the rains. As a result, the soil here has not gained fertility even after 10 years. It is clayey and on digging we can spot sandy patches here and there. The soil did not regain fertility here because leaves and weeds were removed always, and so after the rains got over, the soil became dry till they broke into clayey cakes.
We have created a bio-fence all around the plot, not using a wire net, but by growing plants very close to the traditional fence. It looks tougher than a compound wall and cannot be penetrated. The only problem is that tipplers fling their beer bottles over this bio-fence and into this plot, up to 70 every month. I’m on the look-out for a new technology that will help me build a house using them. The trees I planted here have grown a little bit. They are 8-10 years old. All the pruned branches are left on the ground, and I’ve given strict instructions to the caretaker not to till the land. I’m also filling the ground with green leaves. Wherever we set up forests, we cover the ground with leaves.
Within a year, the quality of the soil should change. If I’m able to alter the soil composition with the introduction of green leaves, branches, twigs, and dung, a forest can be put up. Whatever waterlogging we experience here will be solved when the trees grow and soak it up. The trees can be planted sometime in October after the rains. In the next couple of months, the roots will get firmly fixed in the soil. If there is drought in April, we will irrigate. By the next monsoon, the trees would have grown really firm. Thereafter irrigation need not be done. So it is possible to grow a forest in a field provided the right kind of preparations are done. So permit leaves and branches and dung to remain in the soil, and parts of banana plants as well. They will change the nature of the soil, create an organic atmosphere, and increase the fertility of the land, making it fit for agriculture too. We have begun our experiment here and we will share the results with you in the future.