Sony Music, Green Yatra team up to plant 10,000 saplings and create Miyawaki-style urban forest in Bhayandar

In support of the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation’s (MBMC) ambitious goal of further increasing the green cover of the twin-city, volunteers attached to NGO Green Yatra has teamed up with Sony Music India to transform a barren land in Bhayandar (east) into an “Urban Forest”.

Notably, the urban forest is being created through Miyawaki-style unique forestation technique based on the work of Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki. The Miyawaki-style Urban Forest was inaugurated on Saturday by MBMC Mayor Jyotsna Hasnale in the presence of deputy mayor Hasmukh Gehlot, municipal commissioner Dilip Dhole, standing committee chairman Rakesh Shah, members of Green Yatra and representatives from Sony Music India.

Half portion of the two acre reserved land has been utilized to plant 10,000 saplings of various species through the Miyawaki method which has the biggest advantage of fast growing trees on small plots of land and turning them into tiny but more bio-diverse and dense forests.

“The first of its kind initiatives for the civic body, the urban forest will not only reduce pollution but also act as the much needed green lungs for the twin-city. The NGO will maintain and nurture the plantations until they grow up and the land takes the shape of a tiny but dense forest,” said deputy municipal commissioner Sanjay Shinde.

The land was crying for attention, when the civic administration decided to rope in the NGO to develop the urban forest in collaboration with the music company under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative. The MBMC is also keen to take steps which would attract birds to the urban forest.