Community member Nadana Sigamani candidly shares his experience planting and maintaining native trees in a small plot of land near Bangalore. He hopes that his learnings help other community members in the region in their restoration journeys.
In June 2023, a friend let me use about 2 acres of her uncultivated land, 30 kilometres from Bangalore, for promoting native tree plantations. When I visited it, the site was overgrown with shoulder high weeds, but the soil was of fertile red earth. I couldn’t have asked for a better place. I got the weeds removed, and got the soil ploughed. I selected 254 tree saplings from my personal native nursery. The selection consisted of 88 species, predominantly TDEF species and some from Western Ghats. I used an auger drill bit to drill holes at 12 feet center to center and planted the saplings in August 2023.
Callicarpa tomentosa in flower at Siga’s project
A soil basin was formed around the sapling. They were watered by tractor tankers, once a month during the dry season. I took an inventory of the planted saplings recently, and discovered that I had lost 62 saplings. I analysed the reasons for their death:
- Most of the dead saplings were Western Ghats species.
- Most of the dead saplings were 3 feet or smaller size when I planted them.
- Some of the losses came from foraging cattle damage
- The watering schedule was not diligently followed at times.
- I did not monitor the saplings from time to time.
Most of those saplings that have survived have done well. Particularly, Acrocarpus fraxinifolius, Ceiba pentandra, Celtis tetrandra, Mallotus tetracoccus, Oroxylum indicum, Pterocarpus marsupium, Pterospernun suberifoliun, Sapindus emarginatus, Schleichera oleosa, Terminalia chebula, Wrightia tinctoria and Xanthoxyllum rhetsa have managed to establish very well, despite my mismanagement. All credit should go to them (the trees) alone.
Hiptage benghalensis in flower at Siga’s project
Like a wise man once said, “I never lose. I either win or I learn something new”, I have learnt the following lessons:
- The saplings should be of minimum 5’ in height
- Never miss the watering schedule
- Keep the cattle away
- Monitor the growth of the saplings, regularly
- Replant the dead saplings with more appropriate , well grown species
This work is entirely self-funded. However, I do like the idea of other amateur conservationists in Bangalore pitch in with their time in the planting / monitoring works in the coming months.