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Afforestation Approaches for Restoring Rainforest - A Case Study
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After we felt the positive response from people of Anuganalu for our afforestation program, BCRT team worked out a plan of action in the year 2000 for rejuvenating forest ecosystem on the barren rocky land. Soon after the seasonal monsoon showers, BCRT team along with the local community started the tree planting process on the rocky land.
To plant the tree saplings, we developed a simple method by digging small pits (two square feet deep and ten feet spacing between plants). Then pits were left fallow for few weeks to saturate ground with water from rain showers. Initially, we used stem-cuttings from locally available tree species such as aala (Ficus spp.,), aththi (Ficus racemosa), goni (Ficus mysorensis), hebbevu (Melia composita) for our afforestation purpose (http://www.bcrt.org/afforestation.htm).
We selected these plants because these plants were locally available, easy to propagate and quicker in regeneration on rocky places. In addition, tree saplings of over ten different species like jackfruit tree(Artocarpus integrefolia), teak (Tectona grandis), silver oak (Gravelia robusta), neem (Azadirachta indica), tamarind (Tamerindus indica), etc were procured from the forest department at Hassan for afforestation purpose. Further large-scale afforestation program, we trained farmers to grow local tree saplings in the BCRT nursery. Over the period, BCRT has established its own nursery by growing over 200,000 saplings per year from several different tree species. (http://www.bcrt.org/forestnursery.htm). Most of these saplings were planted at the BCRT campus and rest of the saplings was distributed to local farmers and schools. Because of a large-scale nursery at BCRT campus, we could able to carryout afforestation in a wider area within a short period of time.
The afforestation on rocky land has sensitized the village people about self-help activities and instilled a sense of belonging to them (http://www.bcrt.org/celebration.htm). The villagers co-operated enthusiastically and kept their cattle away from this region. The grass cover on the barren rocky soil led to sprouting of several native tree species. Even during severe dry spells from 2000 to 2004, over 100 native tree species including sandalwood (Santalum album), bilvara (Albizzia spp.,), fire-of-the-forest (Butea monosperma) etc, have started growing on the barren rocky soil without any introduction (http://www.bcrt.org/afforestation.htm). Seeds and cuttings of drought tolerance tree species like Pongamia, and Glyricidia and Agave were used to establish quick fence around this area. BCRT's effort in creating scattered plantation acted as a scaffold structure to encourage the growth of several native plant species including many medicinal plants (http://www.bcrt.org/afforestation.htm). Due to our afforestation work, several thousands of cubic meters of varied granite was conserved, which serve as a unique habitat for several organisms including chameleon, lizards, snakes, lichens and algae (http://www.bcrt.org/Afforestation-extra.htm).
Every year, hundreds of Albizzia and sandal plants sprout from rock crevices in this area. Native trees like Albizzia and sandal plants attract various birds due to thick canopy of these trees and also abundant food source in the afforested area. In fact, birds play a major role in seed dispersal as well as breaking seed dormancy of various tree species including sandal. In this rocky soil, sandal (Santalum album) plant established itself with the support of various tree roots including Albizzia for initial six months before it become independent. This unique mutualism observed in this area was named as 'Albizzia - Bird - Sandal interactions'.
We were surprised to witness the presence of flocks of Peacock and colonies of rock bees in the afforested region. In Indian mythology, the occurrence of peacock and bee in a particular area serve as the indicators of abundant rainfall and vegetation. Now this region is acting as a unique model to the local community on eco-restoration process. The forest recovery on barren rocky soil has made a strong impact on local farmers and now many people believe that agriculture practices and forest ecosystem are interdependent (http://www.bcrt.org/afforestation.htm).
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