A native plants nursery was inaugurated at the Keystone Foundation campus by Deepak Srivastava, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, on Thursday.
The new nursery, which will operate as an extension to another nursery for indigenous plant species, grasses, trees, herbs and shrubs, will have the capacity to house over 10,000 saplings, said Shiny Miriam Rehel, programme coordinator for the Biodiversity Restoration Programme at Keystone Foundation.
The flora at the nursery will be used for a project to restore wetlands and streams to support both wildlife and local communities. The project is supported by the HCL grant – a corporate social responsibility grant from the HCL foundation.
Speaking to The Hindu , Ms. Rehel said that the new, expanded nursery will allow Keystone Foundation to expand their work towards rejuvenating streams and restoring water retention landscapes. “We want to work closely with the forest department, local administration and communities to ensure that they have enough water, which they can share with wildlife,” she added. The NGO was already working on restoration sites in Arakodu, while there were plans to start work towards regenerating a stream in Kookalthorai.
Speaking at the event, Deepak Srivastava, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, called on the NGO to help rid the Nilgiris of plastics. He said that a viable alternative to plastic nursery bags needed to be found and said that local communities can also be roped in to seek alternatives.
Present at the inauguration were also Pratim Roy, the Founder-Director and Anita Varghese, Deputy Director of Keystone Foundation.
