PLANTATHON

Every extra leaf that comes up makes the planet green.

Our planet has lost almost half of its green cover due to poorly planned urbanization. If we have to survive, we need to get back the green cover back, so we need to run and plant trees. And that why the project is called Plant-A-thon.

Karnataka is mainly divided into four regions, the Coastal region, the Malnad region, the North Karnataka region and the South Karnataka region. The coastal and the Malnad region are blessed with good rainfall whereas the other two aren’t. The North Karnataka region is a dry region with a very poor rainfall and the South Karnataka region receives a decent rainfall which is declining in the past few years. As per the Karnataka At A Glance 2021-22 report 80% of the 31 districts of Karnataka are drought prone and more than 77% are classified as arid or semi arid. These numbers indicate that if necessary action isn’t taken then the state will be in a state of drought in the years to come.

Let’s do some math, Karnataka has a total geography of 191,791sqkm which is roughly 4.73crore acres. Out of this 20% of the land is reserved forest which roughly cancels out 1crore acres. So we have 3.7crore acres of non-forest land.

As per the world standards, there are 400 trees per person but India being the second largest nation in terms of population has just 28 trees per person.

In that terms if we calculate, for Karnataka which has a population of 6 crore, we just have 238crore trees as of today, we need at least 1800 crore trees. If we have to meet the world standards. It’s over 8 times the current trees that are present. On an average, if we consider to plant 600 odd trees per acre, we need all the 3.7 crore acre of non-forest land to get 1800crore trees, which is impractical. But whats practical is a way to get these number trees grown in a land that’s available without any problem. Well, there is a method named after a Japanese Botanist Akira Miyawaki, Miyawaki method of plantation, or Miyawaki Forests. This method can grow 10,000 trees in a given acre of land compared to normal plantation of 600-800 trees for an acre. The forests grow 5 times quicker than the traditional ones. So we can get all the trees needed, that too in shorter period of time.

The project would start off with a SURVEY of each district where there are barren lands and where plantations can be done. Once this is done, the plantation will be planned for execution in phases because the method requires the top soil to be filled with organic content like coir, milch, composts etc which have to be sourced from regions where agriculture is done. There would be nurseries that would be setup considering the local species to be nurtured. Water source will be one of the main aspects to be considered while choosing the sites for plantation.

Plantathon will be mainly focusing on URBAN areas and North Karnataka regions having barren lands. This project will also be collaborating with Water Road Project and Farmer’s Outreach Program in terms of sharing resources and finances as and when required.