hyderabads growing green space city now hosts India’s largest miyawaki forest

When chook photographer Sriram Reddy reached a village in Kavaguda, eight kilometers from the Shamshabad airport, on the break of day, he was stepping right into a Miyawaki forest, not anticipating to seize a lot. However, when he sighted greater than 10 species of birds inside a brief span, he canceled all different plans for the following few weeks and returned to that spot.

Spread over 18 acres, that is the nation’s largest Miyawaki forest, adopted by one in Gujarat, unfold over 14 acres.

Sriram, who has documented 1,013 (out of the 1,350) chook species in India, says “In three days, I noticed over 50 species of birds. Apart from the resident birds just like the Tickell’s blue flycatcher, barn owl, red-collared dove and barred buttonquail, I noticed winter guests just like the rosy starling and lesser whitethroat. Mind you, that is only the start of the bird-watching season. We can anticipate to identify many extra.”

Developed by the Stone Craft group headed by Kirthi Chilukuri and Anusha Podduturi, the 18-acre Miyawaki forest at Kavaguda is a part of their 62-acre actual property enterprise known as Woods. The duo most popular to construct a Miyawaki forest over the extra frequent fancy landscaping of their enterprise with an purpose to construct a society the place individuals keep and develop collectively amid nature.

The Miyawaki technique — pioneered by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki — helps construct dense, fast-growing forests with native vegetation. Starting in 2019, the forest in Kavaguda already has over 4 lakh timber that entice birds, butterflies and dragonfly species. Assisted by TRST01 consultancy, , the Stone Craft workforce has GI-tagged every tree within the forest.

Resident birds at Woods: Purple-rumped sunbird | Photo Credit: Sriram Reddy

Keerthi explains, “At the beginning of COVID-19 when we acquired the land (of 62 acres), we had no idea of ​​how we would develop it. Later, when the world faced a scarcity of oxygen cylinders during the pandemic, we realigned our plans.” That led to the conceptualisation of constructing a forest that will be self-sustaining and likewise guarantee steady oxygen provide to close by areas. After a lot examine and brainstorming, , the duo zeroed in on the Miyawaki technique.

Resident birds at Woods: Barn owl | Photo Credit: Sriram Reddy

Thereafter, Stone Craft created a workforce comprising forest officers and designers to establish native timber and put together the soil in the appropriate means. “We studied native tree species in a 50-kilometre radius and found 186 native trees. Then we visited various forest nurseries across India to source the saplings,” explains Anusha. The concept, she says, is to attach and work together and co-exist with nature.

They first ready the bottom with a mixture of sand, purple soil and coco peat. “The soil composition is important to retain moisture. To this soil, we added natural manure sourced from a dairy farm. Following good rains, the method saw a forest growing rapidly,” she provides.

Now the forest has 126 species of native fruit and flowering timber like custard apple, Indian hog plum, gulmohar, java olive, asoka, java plum, Indian soapberry, tamarind, neem and peepal. They have additionally translocated 40 banyan timber that will have in any other case been axed.

View of the woods

Kirthi provides, “To observe how different species respond to each other, we created a nursery where we studied the trees and their growth before going ahead to create the forest. We just kept planting and before we knew it, we ended up covering 18 acres.”