50,000 saplings are being planted in Banswara’s dry hills by tribal groups

Tribal people from Rajasthan’s Banswara district are planting 50,000 saplings in an effort to transform 100 hectares of dry hilly land in the district. Over 700 residents from three villages are carrying out the drive in the Babadev Khajuri Dungra forest, about 40 kilometres from Banswara city, with the help of the forest department, which is expected to bring about significant change in the region.

Saplings of fifteen different species, including Sagwan, Khair, Bamboo, Babool, Kachnar, Amla, Arjuna, Jamun, Kali Karanj, Kadaya, Gada Palash, Banyan, and Peepal, are being planted. ‘The work is nearly finished. It will not only increase forest cover but will also provide fruits and meet the firewood and fodder needs of the locals and their livestock’, said Dalji, president of the Dungra Forest Management Protection Committee. Trenches have been dug, as well as check dams and earthen dams, to conserve water and irrigate the saplings, he said. The forest service used excavators to construct check dams and trenches to collect rainwater.

Dalji stated that the committee will care for the saplings for the next five years and will plant new ones if some of them die. In January of this year, the forest department educated tribal people about the importance of working together to increase forest cover in the region. The plantation drive will be completed by the end of July, after more than four months of digging pits.

‘Getting work done on the dry hills during the summer was difficult for villagers and the forest team. The villagers, on the other hand, have worked hard to bring about change in the area. On 100 hectares of land, as many as 50,000 saplings are being planted’, Ramesh Mayda, a forester, stated.

Tents were erected to provide workers with shade. The greater challenge was transporting drinking water to the hills for the workers, but the villagers succeeded. Jignesh Sharma, Divisional Conservator of Forests in Banswara, stated that the effort will not only increase forest cover in the region, but will also provide firewood and fruits to the locals. ‘The steps taken to increase forest cover will have far-reaching consequences. Aside from a better environment and sources of income, it provides work for the villagers’, Sharma stated.