Plan to increase green cover on school premises through ‘Miyawaki’ forest method

The seeds for this was sown in the virtual meeting organised for the Green Corps and Environmental Groups of the schools in connection with the ‘World Environment Day’.

June 11, 2021 04:30 pm | Updated 04:31 pm IST - TIRUNELVELI:

Even as the schools continue to remain closed due to the pandemic, work on creating denser forests unused areas with in school premises under ‘Miyawaki’ forest method by involving the school authorities and the nature lovers is under way.

The seeds for this was sown in the virtual meeting organised for the Green Corps and Environmental Groups of the schools in connection with the ‘World Environment Day’ on last Saturday, which was attended by the heads of all the schools, environment coordinators and other volunteers.

Chairing the meeting, Chief Educational Officer, Tirunelveli, M. Sivakumar said that everything – right from preparing the unused campus of the schools fit to densely planting the tree saplings – would be kept ready for creating the ‘Miyawaki’ forest before the onset of northeast monsoon this year. Since this exercise would require a few hundred saplings, the schools might start identifying potential sponsors for tree saplings, mostly native varieties such as neem, thespesia etc., which can withstand any adverse climatic conditions.

“The green cover on every school premises should get increased to the maximum possible extent by employing the ‘Miyawaki’ technique, conceptualised by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki. The district, having all five types of lands described in ancient Tamil literature, should set a model to others by increasing the green shade in the schools with the active participation of the students, which will tremendously improve the environment of the educational institutions,” Mr. Sivakumar said.

Action plan for this exercise has been set in motion instantly by identifying the schools with sprawling hitherto unused space, where the pits will be dug to get it cooled for a while so as to ensure smooth growth of the saplings once they are planted.

“If the students can return to the school after the intensity of the pandemic subsides to a greater extent, they will play an active role in protecting the saplings planted on their school campus,” said an official attached to the Office of the Chief Educational Officer.

Mr. Sivakumar also set the target of documenting before June 5, 2022 all the plants, trees, birds, insects and the animals, if any, found on the school premises.

Assistant Conservator of Forest Hemalatha and District Coordinator of National Green Corps Selwyn Samuel, who addressed this meeting, stressed the need for conserving water bodies, biodiversity in the surroundings and increasing green cover by planting more trees and assured the CEO of all possible help for the proposed ‘Miyawaki’ tree saplings planting project.

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