With micro forests, how a district in Punjab expands its green cover

Different stages of a micro forest’s growth in Kuharianwali village of Punjab’s Fazilka district. Express“The forest is now self-sustainable as plants have gained enough strength,” said Karanjeet Singh, the sarpanch of Kuharianwali. Singh said that in the initial few months, the trees needed to be cared for, but once they grew taller than an adult, they could be considered strong enough.

The Miyawaki method, which was devised by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki in the 1980s, is a technique to create micro forests over small plots of land. Achieving this goal requires planting a wide variety of plants in a fairly dense manner so that the plot of land has different layers of a forest such as shrubs and canopies and not just trees. Plants typically require anywhere between eight to nine months of care before reaching a point where the micro forest becomes self-sustaining.

The project was initiated by Sagar Setia, the then Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) of Fazilka. He was transferred in July this year. But Dr Himanshu Aggarwal, Deputy Commissioner of Fazilka, said that since the project had worked well in Kuharianwali, more sarpanches were approached to replicate the success.

“It was decided that to celebrate 75 years of Indian Independence and Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, 75 such forests would be created by the end of 2022,” said Aggarwal.

Different stages of a micro forest’s growth in Kuharianwali village of Punjab’s Fazilka district. Express

As things stand, work for such micro forests has been completed in 12 villages. The process is underway in another 25 villages, and all 75 villages will see the project kick-off by the end of the calendar year. “Panchayats are being persuaded to give a chunk of land for this purpose,” said Aggarwal. He said the government is also constructing pathways inside these forests so that village residents can walk through them.

Last year itself, more than 11 lakh saplings of 23 different varieties were prepared in different nurseries of the villages — this was done with the help of workers under MGNREGA, the rural jobs guarantee scheme. A total of 6,200 plants can be grown in one acre of land, but many panchayats have planted as many as 8,000 as well.

The project cost of raising these 75 micro forests is around Rs 5.3 crore. In other words, the average cost per project is Rs 7 lakh. The exact expense in a particular village, however, depends on the size of the land being used. Some villages, for instance, have earmarked only about half an acre while some others have dedicated up to 5 acres.

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The forests give residents of the villages a sense of belonging, said Raj Babbar, the sarpanch of Rana village. “As these forests are being raised by our villagers, it gives us a sense of belonging, a desire to protect and conserve them,” he said. Babbar is certain that apart from providing a rich source of oxygen, the presence of a micro forest will also have a positive impact on rainfall. “It hardly rains in Fazilka; perhaps this can help in bringing more rains as well,” said Babbar.

The other benefit of this project is already visible. The workforce required for making lakhs of saplings is coming from MGNREGA. Fazilka has always seen considerable demand for MGNREGA jobs, and this project has helped the district cope with this demand to a large ex