Ashis Sinha I Bokaro: ESL Steel Limited (ESL), a Vedanta Group Company, has launched the “Miyawaki Forestry Project” as part of its Green Belt Development project, which spans 1.25 acres and has around 16000 seedlings.
CEO, ESL, NL Vhatte inaugurated the project; all the dignitaries and higher management of the company were present along with employees of the Environment Department who planted saplings in the project area.
This green belt development project is based on the Miyawaki method, a technique introduced by Akira Miyawaki, a Japanese botanist that builds self-sustaining dense mini-forests comprising only of native tree species in a short period.
The Miyawaki method has revolutionized the concept of urban afforestation by strategically converting barren lands into a dense green cover. The approach ensures a ten times increase in growth rate and thirty times increase in density than the standard model of the plantation.
It involves planting two to four trees per square meter, creating a dense grid that helps in lowering the temperature in concrete heat islands. After just three years of maintenance, including watering, de-weeding, and mulching, it becomes self-sustaining.
Speaking on the occasion Vhatte said, this is ESL’s latest initiative under the umbrella project of Green Belt development for the greenery and the environment in the plant premises.
He also pointed out that adopting this concept has many advantages, including increased biodiversity, self-sufficiency in a defined time, reduced air and noise pollution. This will also enhance the ability to meet our goal of zero carbon emissions by 2050 and attain India’s target to become a carbon-neutral country by 2070.
In the coming times, Vedanta ESL’s goal is to ensure these plantation techniques are implemented within the entire Bokaro district and state. With this ESL will continue on its journey to build a Behtar Jharkhand, he said.
