Municipal Projects

Getting civic authorities involved in native greening.

Part of our aim is to see a change in the plants used in the greening of our cities. Without the aid of our municipal authorities, who plan and manage countless landscapes and gardens throughout the city, it will be hard to make a change.

When the city of Satana put out the idea to plant 6,000 trees in their city to help address their ground water problems, we suggested they should give preference to native plants only. One of the major problems in the area is the proliferation of invasive plants like Babool, Lantana and others that are all damaging the ecology of the region. Along with the planting we also approached schools to conduct workshops so that children can also be aware of the issues and take on their own projects.

We have started our pilot eco-city project with the help of the municipal authorities of Satana, Nashik District. The goal of this eco-city project is to create native biodiversity gardens throughout the city. To do this, we first conducted a forest survey of the nearby forest and found over 80 native plant species to help replace commonly planted non-native ones. We decided on a location for a pilot project for a native biodiversity garden by convincing local residents and the city to become caretakers for the project and hope to commence soon.