The Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) has set a model in eco-restoration of forestland making use of the voluntary services of students and social organisations in the State.
The sanctuary authorities launched a 20-day pilot eco-restoration drive in June this year in the Tholpetty forest range, where a fire in 2015 had devastated nearly 450 hectares of forest. The drive was a huge success.
Close to 1,000 students from 20 educational institutions across the State had participated in the drive and planted 40,000 saplings of different species, including those of fruit-bearing ones and bamboo. Steps were taken to eradicate exotic weeds and invasive species from the sanctuary during the drive.
Inspired by the success of the pilot programme, the sanctuary authorities launched an eco-restoration programme on July 1 for students and members of social organisations by rescheduling the three-day nature study camps organised by the Forest and Wildlife Department .
“Usually nature study camps are organised for a group of 40 members and various programmes, including study classes, trekking and cultural activities would be held as part of them,” P. Dhaneshkumar, warden, WSS, says.
“But we rearranged the programme and incorporated one-and-a-half days of eco-restoration activities, including preparing nurseries for planting seeds, transplanting seedlings on forest area, and eradicating exotic weeds and invasive species from forestland,” Mr. Dhaneshkumar said.
He said they had organised 18 eco-restoration camps last month and planted seeds of 10 endemic species in nearly 15,000 grow bags . They also transplanted 20,000 saplings, raised in various forest nurseries, on 25 hectares of forest land in four forest ranges under the sanctuary.
The authorities are planning to plant nearly 50,000 saplings on 100 hectares of forestland.
