- In 2002, the author of this commentary, purchased 37 acres of fallow land in Erode, Tamil Nadu, focusing on planting native species, and practicing organic farming, to allow natural regeneration.
- Successes included planting hundreds of trees and saplings and harvesting rainwater, although they faced challenges such as labour shortages and drought.
- Other challenges include the spread invasive species, poaching, erratic rainfall, and social resistance.
- The views in the commentary are that of the author.
I was a computer engineer by training, but I was increasingly exposed to environmental, economic, social, and political issues. I started looking for ways to both reduce my eco-footprint and contribute positively to addressing those issues. That, combined with my rural upbringing, gave me enough impetus to quit my job in the hope of doing something good for society.
My mother (T. Sayammal) and an older sister (R. Selvamani) were also keen on returning to our rural roots. They had enough experience, knowledge, and enthusiasm for such a move. We then started looking for land to buy. We were particular about not buying land that was being farmed since we had planned to use most of the land we buy for purposes other than farming. Around that time the organic farming movement was gaining a foot hold in our state. Participating in meetings and other outreach programs with members of that movement, we came to know people in many parts of the state who has some similar interests as us. Thanks to one such new friend, S. R. Sundararaman, we came to know that this parcel of land was up for sale.
This is the story of our work on 37 acres of land in Erode district, Tamil Nadu, that was lying fallow when we bought it in 2002.
A small portion was being used for rain-fed cultivation. We learned from local farmers that this sparsely forested area was gradually converted to farmland by settlers moving in from other areas, starting in the late 1960s. The people from whom we bought this land had cleared it of all grasses and almost all trees in order to attract prospective buyers of farmland.
After some discussion among us and with other family members and friends we decided on some broad goals: establishing a mini-arboretum of mostly native species of trees; harvesting rain water so that all rain that falls on this land percolates within a few meters radius, rather than flow away carrying top soil with it; practicing organic farming; and letting nature regenerate on a few acres of degraded land.
With help from local friends like Sundararaman and Ravi, their families, hired workers, some neighbours, and members of our extended family, we started working towards our goals.
What we achieved and what we didn’t
Of our four goals, we started with the second goal of harvesting rain water and did reasonably well. We got over 800 trenches of various sizes (area and depth) dug with the help of machinery. As a result, we catch rain water where it falls. Much as we tried, we couldn’t find workers to do the job so we had to resort to the use of machines.
We achieved a little bit of success on the first goal of establishing a mini-arboretum of mostly native species. Over a two-year period from 2003, we planted a total of about three thousand seedlings of around a hundred and fifty species of trees and smaller plants and nurtured them until early 2016. We planted a larger number of seedlings of drought-tolerant species and two-four seedlings each in case of species that need more water. We planted a few thousand seedlings of palmyra palm. We did this over an area of about eight acres.
We practiced organic farming on about two acres. We grew sesame, peanuts, rice paddy, winter wheat, sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, and a variety of vegetables. We had left some six acres unplanted so we could use that portion for grazing sheep and cattle. Over time, mostly due to labor shortage, we have had to reduce most of this work.
We use ground water from a 340-feet deep bore well that had been dug before we bought this land. Since eco-restoration was our focus we did not want to deepen the deep borewell. Borewells in this neighbourhood are deeper than 700 feet. We decided not to line the walls and floors of rain water harvesting ponds (to prevent percolation) because doing so would necessitate the use of plastic or concrete. Such lining would be breached by natural processes so maintaining them would result in more environmental pollution. Also, water in open ponds would continuously evaporate. So, it is best to use the ponds for recharging ground water rather than storing water for long-term use by pumping. If every farmer in a locality were to implement rain water harvesting to recharge ground water and desisted from pumping ground water from bore wells that would be great. But, for now this is wishful thinking.
Our bore well temporarily dried up in the drought of 2016, worsened by El Nino. Nearly half of the trees seedlings we’d planted and nurtured for some years withered. Drought-resistant species survived and are in various stages of growth, depending on the soil condition where they were planted.
Even at the height of our effort, we’d covered only about fifteen acres and left the rest of the land (a little more than twenty acres) to nature for regeneration. Unsurprisingly, today that area is more diversely populated with sturdier plants (mostly native) than the area where we planted trees.
Eco-restoration activities
We undertook a series of restoration activities, starting with fencing. We felt that we couldn’t achieve any of our goals without some protection from cattle, dogs, poachers, and occasional wildlife incursions. Right from the beginning we were aware of the negative environmental consequences of erecting (barbed wire) fences. In addition to using stone posts quarried from hills, such fences also demand the use of a lot of metal. And we might be hindering free movement of some species of wildlife. We were hoping that social fencing could be introduced to our neighbors but we didn’t succeed, with cattle grazers, poachers and dogs from neighboring farms freely entering our area. So, we installed a barbed wire fence. Even this hasn’t stopped determined poachers and dogs from entering our area. Only a very tall chain-link or electric fence or a boundary wall may help. We haven’t done that since we don’t want to further increase our eco-footprint.
Then we looked at key species. We have so far identified 193 types of plants, including 81 types of trees here.
We have recorded about ten species of snakes, including the venomous four, a few types of geckos, chameleon, monitor lizards, several types of insects including three types of honeybees, a few amphibians, jungle cat, grey mongoose, black naped hare and other mammals. We have been documenting the flora and fauna that live here and have started contributing our sightings to iNaturalist. We have observed and recorded over one hundred species of birds. European bee-eaters have been visiting and roosting here every year between September and March.
We strive hard to keep invasives at bay and were successful for several years. We successfully cleared this land of Prosopis juliflora trees. But, in the past two-three years we’ve seen a dozen or so invasive plants like Chromolaena odorata and Lantana camara, as well as a smaller number of exotic animals rapidly gaining ground in our area. Our efforts at controlling them have been stymied by the speed at which the invasive plants spread.
Some species – which may have been native – have proliferated and become entrenched due to human-induced imbalances in species distribution. For example, Indian peafowl, parrots, and squirrels. Such pests cause significant losses to farmers (and, hence, to society). Initially our neighbors complained that our work (of growing/raising a forest) is what caused this proliferation.
We have occasionally been visited by stray sambar deer and bonnet macaque and once by a pair of gaur (Bos gaurus).
Difficulties faced
Disturbances we faced included anthropogenic climate change, global heating, loss of biodiversity, upsetting the natural balance in the food web and species distribution and resulting in, for example, the proliferation of some species, exotic as well as native, to the detriment of others. Additionally, conversion of deciduous forests to farmland, extensive grazing of cattle, goats, and sheep, logging trees for timber and firewood, poaching wildlife, stray dogs and cats.
We also faced erratic rainfall. We’ve been recording rainfall data since March 2003. Rainfall has been highly variable year-to-year, with a minimum of 380 mm (2016), maximum of 1368 mm (2014) and average 924 mm per year.
Lessons learned
One significant lesson we’ve learned in the past two decades is that it is difficult to protect nature in one small locality. It is easy for us to fault petty poachers who trespass into our territory at night to hunt all sorts of wild animals and birds. But, when most of the people are deprived of basic necessities due to ever widening gaps in income and wealth, and acquisition and possession of money and wealth is the ultimate measure of success, we cannot expect the billions of people at the bottom rungs of the socio-economic pyramid to heed our call to save earth.
Also, in addition to creating and nurturing such islands of nature regeneration, we must pay a lot more attention to restoration and protection of the global commons like the rain forests and oceans.
Read more: [Commentary] Exploring gender in forest landscape restoration initiatives
Banner image: A view of the micro-arboretum from atop the hillock within the boundary of the plot in Erode district. Image by T. Ramakrishnan.
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