Forest In The Courtyard

Forest once covered more than 60% of India’s land area, which is now covered in ‘concrete jungles’, it is alarming how the forest is depleting. We can either decide to discuss while sitting in an air-conditioned room or go out there & make the change we want.

Shubhendu Sharma, an industrial engineer who left his job at Toyota Plant to plant trees & contribute to nature through his business idea of Afforestt. He once volunteered to aid Akira Miyawaki, a naturalist where he learned the technique to regenerate the forest cover of the area. He thought about it & replicated it in India, through his research & some experiments with the soil which suited the Indian climatic conditions. It took him one year to study the Miyawaki method completely & how it works before he moved forward with a business idea.

Sharma’s first attempt was to cultivate a forest in the backyard of his own home in Uttarakhand, he was successfully able to grow a lush green forest in a years’ time. The forest only requires care for one to two years after that it is self-sustainable. This gave him the motivation to go ahead with his plans, although it was difficult for him to convince his family he did it anyway. A group of friends helped to set up the business & supported him through initial financial investments, he finally started Affrorestt in 2011.

The challenge was to find the market for such kind of thing, it practically didn’t even exist in India but after getting their first work from German furnishing maker to plant 10,000 trees. Presently, he is working with a team of 6 & so far has planted more than 54,000 trees for 45 clients. So, plucking fruit from the tree becomes easier than buying one.

Now is a crucial time when we can contribute to our environment, these are the big baby steps that we must take as it is our responsibility for keeping the place, we live clean & healthy for everyone. We often talk about leaving behind a better place for the next generation; why don’t we leave a better younger generation to take care of our planet, teach them to be caring towards every nature & use the resources from nature wisely.

Plant as much tress as possible through Miyawaki or any other method but let’s create a thriving environment for greens around us & can also plant day to day & seasonal use plant/trees/herbs.