KOCHI: Aiming to create lung spaces, which are a rarity in urban dwellings, the social forestry wing of forest and animal welfare department will set up two more ‘Nagaravanams’ (urban forests) in the district this year, as part of Nagaravanam programme to promote urban afforestation. Social forestry authorities will convert an area of minimum five cents at Perumbavoor and Paravur into urban forests.
At Paravur, Nagaravanam would be set up on the SN College campus and at Perumbavoor it would be set up on a school campus. “It would also be a solution for the surging air pollution in the cities,” said a source at the social forestry office at Erankulam. “We will plant only indigenous plants as they can easily survive here. It was two years ago that the state government decided to adopt the method of growing mini forests in urban areas. The method was called as Miyawaki model as the method was popularized by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki.
The project was launched as part of the Rebuild Kerala Initiative and the forest department is the implementing agency in the state.
The programme is being implemented with the support of the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC).
