Short Communication

NIRAM - Modified Miyawaki Technique for Forest Creation: Case Study from Trichy, Tamil Nadu State, India

KC Sivabalan*, Naveen Krishnan and S Nithila

¹Programme Coordinator (Agriculture), Global Nature Foundation, India

²Founder, Global nature Foundation, India

³Asst.Professor, AD AC & RI, India

Submission: November 24, 2020;Published: January 25, 2021

*Corresponding author: KC Sivabalan, Programme Coordinator (Agriculture), Global Nature Foundation, Thuraiyur, Trichy district, Tamil Nadu, India

How to cite this article: KC Sivabalan, Naveen K, S Nithila. NIRAM - Modified Miyawaki Technique for Forest Creation: Case Study from Trichy, Tamil Nadu State, India. JOJ Wildl Biodivers. 2021: 3(2): 555613 DOI: 10.19080/JOJWB.2021.03.555613

Abstract

The change in climate has adverse effects on food chains, plant, and animal habitats. The unexpected natural disasters such as flood, drought, rise in sea level could affect not only the community and the ecology of the region. The deforestation and degradation of natural resources carried out in the past leads to deterioration of wild plant species and animal kingdom. For addressing climate variations, restoring forest ecosystems and recreating forests could be better solution. Since the creation of forests could take much more years, the technique of creating green cover in shorter span of time also gains importance across the continents. More coherent initiatives such as expanding forest cover, restoration for forests and urban forests are imperative and need of the hour. Apart from ecological benefits, globally, 1.6 billion people nearly 25% of the world’s population rely on forests for their livelihoods. The forests provide US$ 75-100 billion per year in goods and services such as clean water and healthy soils and the forests are home to 80% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity

Keywords: Climate change, Forest ecosystems, Biodiversity, Restoration, Afforestation.

Introduction

India occupies 2.5 percent of world geographic area supporting 17 percent of human population and 18 percent livestock of the world. It is one among the 17 “mega diverse” countries and home to 8% of the world’s known flora and fauna. The forests play an important role in the socio-economic development of countries like India. The forest in India ranging from the dry alpine forests of Ladakh in the northern frontier to the tropical moist rain forests of Kerala in the South India and from the thorny forests of the desert tracts in the western province to the wet evergreen forests of North-Eastern India. Being home for fauna and flora, forests are also the rich sources of energy, housing, firewood, timber and fodder. They provide direct employment to rural and tribal population. Indian forests support the livelihood of nearly 275 million people, directly or indirectly dependent on forests for food, fodder, fuel wood and other forest by products. On average about 1.2 million Ha. area is taken up for plantation which generates 144-million-man days of employment per annum. Among the states, Arunachal Pradesh ranks first with 7.93 ha of forest per person based on the inter-state distribution of forest area per capita indicators.

Deforestation and climate change

As per State of Environment Report 2017, about 45 percent of India’s land is degraded due to erosion, soil acidity, alkalinity and salinity, water logging and wind erosion. The prime causes of land degradation are deforestation, unsustainable farming, mining and excessive groundwater extraction. Urbanization and developmental activities are causing continuous decline in forest cover over time. The cutting of trees and change in climate are directly proportional. The change in climate could affect agriculture directly and natural disasters such as flood, drought, rise in sea level could affect livelihood of both rural and urban communities. In the past seven decades, about 57,300 sq. Km of forest area for non-forestry purposes like mining, river valley projects, roads and highways etc. Although India contributes only about five percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, about 700 million Indians directly face the threat of global warming. FSI estimates show that India has a carbon stock of 7.1 gigatons that has been increasing over the years with net tree cover gain. According to GFW, loss of tree cover in India releases an average of 0.037 gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per year. This is equivalent to emissions produced by the consumption of 4 billion gallons of gasoline. The increase in stock means that the carbon loss is compensated for by carbon sequestration, but further reduced deforestation could make India’s forests a larger carbon sink. During the last two decades, India has witnessed annual depletion of forest cover at a rate of 235 km2. The consumption of fuel wood and timber in the country was 23.5 and 40 million m3, respectively against the availability of 40 million m3 and 15 million m3 from the forests.

Restoration and reconstruction of natural ecosystems

The reconstruction of natural eco system involves both multi-stakeholder and coherent efforts. At the ecological level, restoration is defined as ‘‘an intentional activity that initiates or accelerates recovery of an ecosystem with respect to its health, integrity and sustainability’’ [1]. The natural restoration or human initiatives consumes larger financial support and time frame. For instance, during the period from 2011 and 2016, India allocated more than 16 billion USD for improving forest and tree cover through public financing (WRI India report). It is essential to restore the natural vegetation using a combination of native species that conform to the potential trend of the habitat and to try to restore the whole specific ecosystem of a region [2]. It was estimated that, over two-thirds of the degraded 147 million hectares in India can be regenerated quite easily. The restoration involves both bringing new forest cover as well as improving the productivity of the forests. The productivity of Indian forests is extremely low as 0.7 cum (Cubic meter) as against the world average 2.1 cum/ha. /year (FSI,1989) and along with this, the average growing stock is 32 cum per ha. as compared to world average of 110cum. The enhancement of the productivity potential could bring considerable improvement in economic environmental quality standards.

Miyawaki technique of forest creation

In natural process, creation of forests could take much more years. Across the globe, in the last two decades, scientists have developed new insights both in theoretical and in practical actions for restoration and reconstruction of natural ecosystems [1,3,4]. Miyawaki is a technique pioneered by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, which helps build dense, native forests in a shorter span of time. The method involves enhancement of soil fertility by mulching, identification of native trees of the region and planting.

Mulching was advocated to prevent soil dryness, erosion on steep slopes even with heavy rainfall, weed growth, protect seedlings against cold, and as manure as materials decompose [5]. In this method, all intermediate and late successional species with many companion species were mixed and densely planted [2]. The dense planting resulted in dynamic equilibrium and cooperation among the different species [6]. The approach is supposed to ensure that plant growth is 10 times faster and the resulting plantation is 30 times denser than normalcy.

The Miyawaki technique has been followed in Japan, South American countries, Far East and Malaysia in the environmentally degraded lands as well as urban landscapes. In shorter span of time, more urban forests were developed. The urban forests have multi facet advantages such as reduction in temperature, air quality improvement, CO2 sequestration, improvement of wellbeing indicators and also hike in real estate prices. That’s why many urban real estate builders are announcing green projects in Metros so as to attract more clients.

Need for reorientation on forest creation

Though impressive results were obtained by Miyawaki technique of forest creation, the biotic factors including the soil fertility and native tree species were played a major role in biological growth. Following the system of natural forests with much care for soil conditions took 15-20 years in Japan and 30-40 years in the Torrid Zone [2]. The selection of tree species is also crucial for individual farmer who interested in Agri-silviculture and agro forestry models. Therefore, working out of ancillary technique or refined cropping patterns in the existing technique is the need of the hour. In this context, this paper represents the first test of modified Miyawaki method called NIRAM (Naveen Integrated Rapid Afforestation Method) reforestation technique in the Thuraiyur of Trichy district in delta zone of Tamil Nadu, India.

Methodology

The project site located at Naveen garden, C. Krishnapuram, Mavilipatty Panchayat, Musiri Taluk, Trichy district (11°03’55.3”N 78°29’10.2”E) was purposely selected. The area of about 1 Ha was levelled properly. The topsoil was not removed as in Miyawaki technique. The farmyard manures were applied. A pit size of 0.76 mts with depth of 0.76 mts was excavated. The distance between every pit is about 3.04 mts distance. The inter space between the pits were meant for manual operations and recreational walking. In one hectare of land, around 1250 pits were excavated. The tree selection was based not only on native grown tress but also on a multipurpose utility. The trees of timber value, fruit bearing, ornamental and shrubs were selected. In every pit, about 4 trees saplings were planted.

Result and Discussion

Many conservationists expressed the concern that the forest is not just the trees or shrubs, but it is a complex ecosystem. The forest should be a place for balanced eco system with fauna and flora. Keeping in mind, a new technique called NIRAM (Naveen Integrated Rapid Afforestation Method) was formulated. With this technique, a dense plantation could be formed in a shorter span of time with space for the post cultural operations and recreation utilities (Figure 1 & Figure 2). This new technique also serves as economical returns in due course of time. The higher space utilization and cost reduction over the normal monoculture or agro forestry methods are the highlights of the NIRAM (Naveen Integrated Rapid Afforestation Method) technique. Trees were grown up to a height of 5 mts (Figure 3). About 90 percent of the planted area was covered by green canopy (Figure 4). It is evident from the study that, mutual shading resulted in temperature reduction in the canopy area as well inviting natural dwelling place for insects, honeybees and animals (Table 1 & Figure 5). The trees planted with equal spacing could be used for recreation and aesthetic values and generate economic returns (Figure 6).

Conclusion

Approximately 2.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide, one-third of the CO2 released from burning fossil fuels, is absorbed by forests every year. The vital solutions for combating climate change and mitigation are prevention of wood logging, deforestation, and illegal poaching. The ecological landscape restoration involves not only growing trees but also balancing biodiversity. WRI India’s Restoration Opportunities Atlas identifies nearly 140 million hectares where landscape restoration can lead to the sequestration of 3 to 4.3 billion tons of above-ground carbon by 2040. For mitigating climate change issues, the present area of forests in India should be extended up still more to 25 to 30 million hectares. Thus, new innovative approaches such as NIRAM could add more green cover in lesser time frame. The up scaling of these kind of techniques needs support from Public and Private agencies and nature conservationists.

References

1. Aronson J, Clewell A, Covington W, Harris J, Higgs E (2002) Society for Ecological Restoration International Science & Policy Working Group. The SER International Primer on Ecological Restoration.
2. Miyawaki A, (1998) Restoration of urban green environments based on the theories of vegetation ecology. Ecol. Eng. 11,157–165.
3. Clewell AF, Aronson J (2007) Ecological restoration: principles, values, and structure of an emerging profession. Island Press, Washington DC.
4. Falk DA, Palmer MA, Zedier IB (eds) (2006) Foundations of restoration ecology. Island Press, Washington DC. pp. 584.
5. Miyawaki A (2004) Restoration of living environment based on vegetation ecology: theory and practice. Ecol Res 19(1): 83-90.
6. Padilla FM, Pugnaire FI (2006) The role of nurse plants in the restoration of degraded environments. Front Ecol Environ 4(4):196-202.