Familial forestry: Trees nurtured by the community

DW (English)

In Rajasthan’s drought-hit desert, a village grows hope – uniting to nurture saplings in a tree nursery that’s transforming lives and the landscape.

Transcript

00:00Vikas is a quick and tidy worker after school the 11th grader tends to tiny

00:07seedlings there are a number of children here from the village spending their

00:13after-school hours at this tree nursery

00:19it is really important because we have learned that plants should be taken care

00:24of like kids what sets this tree nursery apart is that it belongs to everyone in

00:31the village and is taken care of by everyone

00:37this village is in Rajasthan is called 12 TK located in the thar desert

00:43temperatures in the summer can reach 50 degrees for a tree nursery it's an

00:50extremely challenging climate we focus on planting seeds suited to our climate

00:59including khayjuri or jar in addition fruit bearing plants like kinu lemon and

01:05pomegranate are commonly grown here they can also bloom in desert areas with

01:12limited water the concept employed at the nursery is called familial forestry and

01:21was conceived by Shamsundir Jani a sociology professor from the city of Bikanir the

01:28thinking is that young trees will have a far better chances of survival if they

01:32are nurtured and cared for post planting as you would with a regular member of the

01:38family familial forestry emphasizes that our work starts after plantations note our

01:44works ends with the plantation so when we plant the saplings that means that we

01:48are ready to take or we are ready to own a responsibility to nurture that that

01:53particularly like a green member of family so it's a kind of an active and

01:58empathetic environmental activism this is not the first time we have met Shamsundir Jani

02:05we featured him in a previous report four years ago also about familial

02:10forestry back then he took us along to the university where the idea germinated in

02:162003 young professor Jani planted a number of native trees on the campus grounds

02:21together with students which they then cared for he gave saplings to families to

02:27provide both fruit and shade for their gardens in 2021 he also took us to a

02:33school where the children performed a celebratory dance as a classmate planted

02:38the seedlings brought along by the professor and they all learned from him

02:42about the importance of taking care of the budding trees four years on Shamsundir Jani

02:48has returned to see how the tiny trees have been faring that condition of trees are

02:57quite well actually when we started planting over here in 21 then I did not

03:02expect that they will grow in such a healthy stage and and they are quite

03:07healthy and it shows that the teachers and the students are maintaining them

03:11properly in 2021 Shamsundir Jani was given the land for life award by the UN

03:18convention to combat desertification the owner put him and his familial forestry

03:23concept in the international spotlight and that has in turn helped him to attract

03:28international funding from organizations in the US Canada and Britain or at the

03:34tree nursery in 12 TK there are plenty of local visitors villagers from

03:40neighboring Mozart Khooni have come to pick up new seedlings which they don't have

03:44to pay for thanks to the donations but they do promise to give the trees some

03:49tender loving care and in addition to native tree seedlings the nursery also

03:58grows shrubs the professor wants to show us why and takes us to Dabla Tala 200

04:05kilometers south of 12 TK for two decades an area covering over 200 hectares of land

04:16was subject to rampant illegal gypsum mining three years ago Jani became

04:22restoring the area using the familial forestry principle

04:25familial forestry doesn't mean merely planting of trees familial forestry means

04:34that to respond the requirement or need of the local ecosystems as this ecosystem is

04:42very specific with the grasses and the shrubs and back in 12 TK as well people

04:48have gathered together today to talk about their experiences and about familial

04:53forestry over the last four years the little tree nursery has nurtured and

04:57given away over two hundred thousand saplings with the village itself turning

05:02greener

05:13one of the villagers has written a song in praise of the program that familial

05:19forestry is about far more than just planting trees

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