Citizens unite to expand Bharuch’s green lungs on 4km barren land

Surat: Determination can surely move mountains. A fine example of such determination is seen in the dense man-made forest on a four-kilometre belt between a railway track and the old NH-8 — created with citizens’ unity and some help from the authorities that redesigned the barren landscape.
The citizens’ council of Bharuch planted thousands of trees in the under utilized land belonging to the railway department and converted it into a jungle of hope and home for birds in future.
Founder member and trustee of citizen council of Bharuch, Manoj Anandpura said, “In the current scenario of concrete development, we thought of creating some green space and members of the council contacted the district collector on July 15, 2019 with a proposal. With his support we met the social forestry department asking to allow us to plant trees on their land. We signed an MoU with the forest department and this is how the Reva Aranya, our little forest grew.”
Anandpura further said that the council is also creating a green cover near Narmada riverbanks and that their green endeavour is also getting financial support from a few industries too.
An organic farmer of Amleshwar village, Nitin Bhatt, who is also a part of this tree plantation project since inception said that he used his experience in organic farming to plant different species that will help attract different types of butterfly, honey bees, and birds to the forest. “I am entrusted with taking care of the plants, cleaning up the plantation site and also nurturing the saplings too. We choose 80% local species that can survive easily while the remaining 20% belong to species that can adapt to the soil her and grow,” Bhatt added. Mohamad Jagdiwal, 50, a businessman and avid nature lover said that the project aims for the next generation. “There are around 55 different bird species, many of which aren’t seen regularly. We have planted a variety of trees following traditional procedure and using natural compost only,” he added.