Rock Top Forest

Miyawaki forests offer us a great way to reclaim rocky land and abandoned quarries. This  was proven by Prof. Miyawaki himself at a place called Kanagawa in Japan, on 12 acres of rocky land.  Drawing inspiration from it, we decided to try out that model of afforestation at Puliyarakonam on a 12 sq. m. or roughly 125 sq. ft plot, by planting 60 saplings.  

First, we marked out one sq. m. segments in the selected area, and then bored holes on the surface in order to give roots the space to grow through.  Over other series of holes drilled into rocks we erected one-metre-tall iron grilles welded to posts, and the enclosed spaces were filled with a mixture of soil, manure, cow dung powder and so on to a height of one metre.  That formed the seed bed into which we planted the saplings.  Then we laid a thick layer of mulch, comprising dry leaves on the ground.  

The saplings belong to various species.  Some of them are pongamia, willow-leaved water croton, oleander, bird cherry, white-coloured jungle geranium, bandicoot berry, Spanish cherry, Mussaenda, mulberry, Asoka, peepal, child life tree, Indian laurel, white orchid tree, cashew, dye fig, golden shower, tamarind, Indian tragacanth, Ceylon olive, native jack, coral wood, crown flower, drumstick tree, Indian fig tree, elephant apple, Malabar nut, cotton, Malabar tamarind, Indian mulberry, golden silk cotton tree, strychnine tree and beach almond, among others.