Amid dwindling green cover, a Miyawaki forest takes root

by Anirudh Kumar

Bengaluru: City-based NGO SayTrees planted 8,000 saplings over the weekend as a part of its ‘forest under construction’ movement. The effort was aimed at improving the rapidly declining tree cover in the city.

Over 500 volunteers helped plant the saplings on one acre of land at the Indian Railway Institute of Disaster Management, along Mysore Road. Local varieties such as Rosewood, Peepal, Drumstick and Jamun were planted. With the 8,000 saplings, SayTrees has planted about 14,000 saplings on that piece land over the past three weeks.


Saplings were strategically planted using the Miyawaki method, which involves growing a great number of saplings within a small area. This, in turn, produces a dense forest. “In a normal planting technique, you could have about 400 plants per acre. But in the Miyawaki method, we grow 10,000,” organiser of the event Durgesh Agrahari said.

Not only does this technique allow effective utilisation of land, it also makes the trees more resilient to storms and high-velocity winds. The NGO has planted over 50,000 saplings in the past two-and-a-half years, resulting in 14 Miyawaki forests in Bengaluru itself.

The NGO plans to keep a watch over the saplings for two years. A gardener is being assigned to take care of the area and water the plants. The South Western Railway Division will also ensure safety of the saplings planted on its property.

SayTrees has so far created four patches in Jigani and Bommasandra Industrial Area, two in the diesel loco shed in KR Puram, one at Confident Aries apartment complex in Sarjapura and one near Bannerghatta. Four more forests were created around government schools in Hosur.

Bengaluru’s tree cover has decreased from 68.2% in 1973 to 6.46% in 2017, according to an Indian Institute of Science study, titled ‘Frequent Floods in Bangalore: Causes and Remedial Measures’, by Prof TV Ramachandra.