Family Of Native Tree Saviours

Another inspiring story of locals involved in conservation...
Original: http://www.mumbaimirror.com/index.as...95379256ce51dc

There it grows: Family of native tree saviours
Vijay Chavan and Rajesh Nirgude
Posted On Monday, August 01, 2011 at 02:39:41 AM

Kashibai Malleshwari Pawar and her family are rich, but their treasure is something they don't hoard. On the contrary, they take great pains to distribute it far and wide. For the last 35 years, this illiterate family has been covering 10-20 km of forest land all over the state to collect seeds of native trees, which they donate to various tree plantation drives.

No one in the Pawar family has received formal education, but each of them is literate when it comes to the eco-system, and all the types of trees in the state's forests. Their tools comprise empty sacks, a bamboo pole and a sickle which they use to collect seeds.

Despite danger from reptiles, poisonous plants, insects and wild animals, the Pawars engage in this work all year round. They prefer to stay deep in the forest.

Speaking to Mumbai Mirror, Kashibai said with pride, "We have combed the Western Ghats, Konkan, Mahabaleshwar, Bhimashankar, Kinwat, Panshet, Karjat, Khopoli, Chiplun, Radhanagari, Wai and parts of Bhandara district in search of rare seeds.

The only cooperation from the Forest Department is a certificate that says we are allowed to collect seeds in forests. We have lost count of the number of trees we have collected in all these years, but I feel that wherever there is a plantation, our seeds are growing there."

Wish more details were available about their activities. What are the rare seeds? And what is done with these rare seeds?

Good to know that someone is donating seeds of native plants for tree plantation drives. I have found that it becomes very difficult to get native tree species for tree plantation drives. The choice is pretty limited to 3-4 species and invariably it becomes a mono-culture.

Most of the nurseries encourage plantation of exotic species.


Cheers,
Sabyasachi

Sabyasachi,
Cant find any more details unfortunately :(, this appears to be the only published article on this topic. Not sure what the term "rare seeds" refers to here. Am interested to know where the respective seeds are planted after they are collected. I hope they are not distributed randomly over parts of the state (as there is great variation in the forest type). However, it seems to be a step in the right direction. Most of the trees used in tree plantation drives are exotics, one very dominant example, at least in Mumbai, is the Rain Tree (Albizia saman), which is actually native to Central & South America.

Its good to know that people are taking lot of initiatives in their own way to preserve our jungles. It will be good to know where Kashibai and her family is based. Thanks for sharing this information.