" I know it’s already the end of August, but June was a crazy month, that started out in the most amazing of ways. A close friend of mine invited me to her cousin’s tree planting event in Khandala. Bright and early on a Saturday morning we set off to go give back the planet some of that carbon we owe. But I was just a participant, here’s what Jai, the man behind it all, had to say:"
We started out by selecting native Indian trees and went through the process of narrowing them down to the ones that were native to Maharashtra, further narrowing to those native to the Western Ghats and finally selected only those from that list that would grow well in at Khandala’s unique elevation
Since a natural forest is made up of a diverse set of vegetation, we made sure to include trees all the way from the canopy, down to shrubs, all the while ensuring that they could grow well together in the same environment.
Finally, we had a good mix of Shrubs, Small trees, Medium sized trees, Large trees and Canopy layer trees. Which had everything from Fruiting trees to Flowering trees to Medicinal trees, Timber trees to Rare and endangered species, Evergreens, and Trees that attract birds and insects all through the year.
The 52 varieties selected were to maximise Carbon Sequestration and Oxygen Production. The need of the hour.
We have regenerated the soil through natural compost and coco-peat and that will help provide the right nutirients and help these trees flourish.
And finally, since water is the lifeblood of everything, we took steps to ensure that the trees were never lacking. We have made continuous contoured trenches that help to store water and then subsequently help percolate water into the ground. In addition, we have built small ponds to store the water and prevent it from simply running off before it gets a chance to percolate.
Through all the efforts: planting, laying down coco peat and water management, we believe we should be able to percolate more than 5 lakh liters of water in the ground and store close to 75000 liters of water on the surface.
We hope that this will help restore at least a small part of our planet,