This is a forest we created close to a snake grove in Thiruvalla in June 2019. Two years have passed. However, its growth has not reached the expected level. There are reasons for this. Mainly, the trees in the snake grove are very robust. So, very little sunlight is available here. The chances of the saplings of the Miyawaki forest getting sunlight from the south and the west are very slim. The condition is not different on the north or the east either because on the one side there is the shadow cast by the house and on the other, the shade of several trees.
Our belief was that by planting a Miyawaki forest here we could extend the snake grove so that it would eventually cover an area of five cents. Some of the trees, like bamboo for instance, have grown really well. As for the specialty of the soil – this place is situated in the Pathanamthitta-Alappuzha border – it is fine sand. In Alappuzha, we had planted saplings in the same kind of sand but the growth there had been good. So the unfavourable factor here is lack of sunlight.
A major reason for introducing this forest to you is tell you that, instead of planting four saplings in a one-square-metre segment as is customary, we had planted only two. That was because of the proximity of the snake grove and the house. We decided it would be better to select fruit-bearing trees that would be more useful to the residents here. But what we notice here are two peculiarities: one, the poor growth of plants, and two, the aggressive growth of certain invasive species, like the bamboo. On the whole, we do not see uniform growth. One of the commonest queries we receive is: Will a Miyawaki forest thrive in a plot where there are trees already? If the existing trees are not chopped, we will get results like this one. It will not show the growth that it normally does in open spaces.
Let us go inside and find out for ourselves. It has begun to give us a feel of a forest. Soon, it will become a proper forest. Things are not quite as bad as I feared. This is Ceylon olive, night-flowering jasmine, cannonball, jack, custard apple, black plum, neem, burflower– its leaves have grown as large as those of the teak – wild jack, jack and gooseberry. Not much maintenance has been done here. Stakes have not been fixed to support these plants. As a result, this pongamia sapling has gone down. This is cacao. This is wild cinnamon. This is flame-of-the-forest. Its growth looks good. Many other varieties are growing here. Bitter gourd, for instance, must have sprouted from cow dung powder. Many plants have perished. The rest have not grown enough. That’s chickoo. Look at that Malabar kino. It has grown too big. If it is not pruned, other plants will not get a chance to grow. The purple guava and the curry leaf tree are growing well. Here too many plants have died. I think it was because of creepers.
To that side is the snake grove. This is the southern side of the snake grove. No sunlight is available here. None is coming from the western side either. On the eastern side, there are many trees. This garden plot is full of trees. That is why other trees do not grow much. Comparatively speaking, this forest does not have much density. This is also an example of what will happen when fewer saplings are planted. A couple of factors are significant here. One, inadequate sunlight that affects growth; two, less crowding that decreases the intensity of competition. But a few plants here and there have grown well. This Pala indigo plant for instance. There was some type of tree here. It was chopped off but many branches have sprouted from the stump. This is Burma ironwood. Its wood is very thick. Despite being chopped, it has put out shoots. After some time, it will grow into a big tree. This arecanut tree might not have been planted here. Maybe the seed was deposited by a bat or some other creature. Such a possibility exists. That is the peculiarity of forests in Kerala.
In Europe or Japan, the forests almost resemble rubber plantations because there aren’t too many creepers. There is no such covering on the ground either. But here, creepers grow as luxuriantly as the plants, making it difficult for us to go inside. Forests in foreign countries are beautiful to look at because they look like gardens, and we can walk through them. The ones I have seen were all like that. What we see here is that all the trees are standing but they do not show enough growth. But this is all that we can do when we create a forest so close to a snake grove. The plants will survive but their growth will not be as dense as that in other Miyawaki forests.
In a couple of years’ time, the trees will shoot up and the area will be overcome by creepers. Birds will drop seeds and new plants will sprout, and this will grow as an extension of the snake grove. The seeds of the trees inside the snake grove will also fall here and sprout. The saplings will grow, and along with the trees that we have planted, create a forest. That is possible but the growth rate will be relatively less. This is the first experience of such a kind, and it has taught us a lesson.