Delhi govt plans 2 new Miyawaki forests near Najafgarh

Hindustan Times

2 days ago

The Delhi government is planning to create two new Miyawaki forests in the heart of southwest Delhi by planting 350,000 saplings of native species, environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said on Thursday. The forests will be created in Kharkhari Jatmal (2.44 hectares) and Jainpur (4.54 hectares), both near Najafgarh. The Green Yatra Miyawaki Forest 1 in Mayur Vihar phase 3. (HT Photo)
Miyawaki forests, which are 30 times denser than regular forests, were pioneered by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki in the 1980s. In these forests, saplings are planted close to each other to form a dense ecosystem. This is believed to ensure a high degree of carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration.
'In April the Delhi government announced that it will plant 7 million saplings this year. But there is hardly any new land left where we can carry out large-scale plantations, so Miyawaki forests help in that regard. They allow more saplings to be planted close together, making it a dense urban jungle landscape,' Sirsa said. He added that the saplings for the forests will be planted starting from the monsoon season.
Several Miyawaki forests already exist in Delhi. One of the city's first Miyawaki forests was created by the Union environment ministry near the CAG building in ITO. It was inaugurated by the then Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar and had 59 species and more than 12,000 saplings. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has created more than 15 such forests. Three new sites were identified this year at Bhalswa village and Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar.
Last year, a 1.25 acre Miyawaki forest was created in Wazirpur's A block and a 6-acre forest at Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar. Other such forests include two in Mayur Vihar Phase 3, in Dwarka's Shahabad Mohammadpur village and at least two in Dwarka Sector 17.
In the two forests to come up near Najafgarh, 20 to 30 native species will be chosen with a distance of 60cm to be kept between trees, Sirsa said.
'In this method, all intermediate and late successional species with many companion species are mixed and densely planted. The dense planting results in dynamic equilibrium and ensures cooperation among different species. The approach also ensures that plant growth is 10 times faster and the resulting plantation is 30 times denser than normal plantations,' the minister said.
A government official said the process of creating a Miyawaki first involves determining the soil texture and type, before enriching it. Simultaneously, suitable species for the soil type are identified. 'A plan is then prepared to plant a mix of native species, including shrubs and creepers. Such forests are monitored and maintained for five years,' said the official.
But experts said the effectiveness of Miyawaki over conventional forests was still in question.
'There are no long-term studies to suggest Miyawaki forests mitigate more carbon in comparison to normal forests. In the long-run, it evens out. What we see in Miyawaki forests is that the roots are underdeveloped and there is often mono-culture. The more dominant species outcompete and end up dominating the landscape, not allowing the comparatively slower growing species to flourish,' explained ecologist Vijay Dhasmana, who is also the curator at Gurugram's Aravalli Biodiversity Park.
'Plants should not just grow fast, but last longer. In the Aravalli landscape, we don't have dense forests, but also have savannah grasslands and these grasses mitigate CO2 just as much,' Dhasmana added. Miyawaki forests are also costlier to create than regular forests, he added.