Pune: a group of nature lovers in Pune have proven ‘where there is a will, there is a way’ by creating in the city of the patch of forests spread over 30 hectares of land, which was once barren but was home to thousands of native trees now.
The city forest is named ‘Anand Van’ located in the Nibm area and has been developed over the past few years by Anand van Mitra Mandal (AVMM) on the land owned by the Ministry of Forestry, who has appreciated group work.
This voluntary group traces local citizens, students, conservationists, corporations and children from slums nearby in the uphill task of changing dry soil into a green zone by driving a weekly tree plantation.
“Until 2013, the 33-hectare forest land was not fertile, barren and rocky, where waste, construction waste used to be discarded.
It was once the place of all illegal activities.
But convincingly some local residents, we began planting puppies and convincing.
Ensure that they are taken care of, “said Praveen Kumar Anand 65 years old, President of AVMM.
“It’s a difficult task, but we convince people in the area about the importance of reclamation of space and how it will pay dividends to us in the future.
Gradually, the number of people in this movement began to grow,” he said.
When the Ministry of Forestry learned about the activity, he expanded assistance to the group and building fences and gates to ensure encroachment and violations were locked up, he said.
Anand said that the availability of water was a big challenge for the people of puppies.
“We usually carry water in cans and appeal to people to donate water through tankers,” he said.
When the protection of plants and trees is important, children who live in slums around them are issued.
He said it to attract birds, they had planted various types of trees.
“We have even planted Mulberries, and surprised us, various types of birds now come to Anandvan,” he said.
Bhupesh Sharma, another group member, “So far, we have planted 10,000 trees that include trees belonging to 80 to 90 indigenous varieties.
Because of the scientific way of planting trees and post-plantation treatments, tree survival rates are almost 95 percent.” Talking about activities, Deputy Forest Conservator (Pune) Rahul Patil, “This group is fine work.
Anand van model is a good example of how barren land can be transformed into forests.
These models must be replicated elsewhere.”