Greater Noida to create forest via Miyawaki method

GREATER NOIDA: After the Noida authority and district administration adopted this method, the Greater Noida authority has decided to grow forests using the Japanese

GREATER NOIDA: After the Noida authority and district administration adopted this method, the Greater Noida authority has decided to grow forests using the Japanese Miyawaki technique that helps grow dense forests in cities on smaller patches of land. The authority will use this method in green belts and parks.

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“We have decided to increase green cover by developing urban forestry in our green belts and other sites across the city via the Miyawaki technique, and will soon start work at the sites. We have decided to use this technique because it will help develop forestry faster, as compared to traditional methods. The forests will not only become green lungs, but also picnic spots after they are developed,” said Narendra Bhooshan, chief executive officer of the Greater Noida authority.

The technique is named after it’s founder, Akira Miyawaki, a Japanese botanist. The authority will first carry out soil testing, enrich the soil, and then perform the planting. Under this technique, botanists use long, medium and small length plants. This method requires 75% less water for irrigation as compared to traditional ways, officials said.

In the beginning, the authority will use the technique on a 1,000-square metre plot near its administrative office in Knowledge Park-IV. After this, the authority will identify other sites in its green belts to develop forests. Under this method, the minimum area on which this technique can be used is 100 square metres.

“We will use cow dung compost in this project, from our cow shelters in Jalpura,” Bhooshan said.

The Noida authority and administration have already started developing forests using this method. The authority is developing a forest on 6,000 square metre green belt in Sector 91.

The administration also planted about 8,500 plants over 2,500 square metres using the Miyawaki method at the district magistrate’s office in Greater Noida’s Surajpur. The purely organic method usually uses only 25% of the water required by conventional methods, and leads to faster growth of a forest system that includes large or canopy trees, general trees, sub-trees and shrubs.