The establishment of the district nursery is nearing completion on a one-acre plot held by the Kerala Prisons and Correctional Services Department in Poojappura.
The facility, which is one among five such nurseries being launched across the State (the others being in Kasaragod, Palakkad, Pathanamthitta and Wayanad), is intended to supply seedlings throughout the year. The project, which is part of the government’s 100-day action plan, is likely to be inaugurated in February.
The proposed nurseries will boost production of seedlings that has so far been limited to the central forest nurseries in Kulathupuzha (in Kollam), Chettikulam (in Chalakudy) and Karimpuzha (in Nilambur).
According to Y.M. Shajikumar, Assistant Conservator of Forests (Social Forestry), Thiruvananthapuram, the nursery and sale counter is being readied up on a land, around 100 metres away from the petrol pump run by the Prisons Department in Poojappura. He pointed out that fruit-bearing and timber-yielding species will form a bulk of seedlings nurtured at the nursery.
A plant library, which will adjoin the nursery, will provide extensive information about diverse plant varieties and is bound to attract numerous people, especially school students.
The district nurseries are being established using funds sanctioned by the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA).
