In the past one year, the garden department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has planted 1.62 lakh trees of 45 species in as many as 24 Miyawaki forests in Mumbai.
In December 2019, then Municipal Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi had appointed contractors for planting saplings, using the Miyawaki concept of gardening and plantation. On 26 January, 2020, Maharashtra Chief Minister, Uddhav Thackeray and State Minister of Environment Aaditya Thackeray had inaugurated the 'Miyawaki project Mumbai'.
Total 64 open spaces of the municipal area were selected for Miyawaki plantation. Of the total number of places, forests in 24 places are now well established.
"The lockdown minimised human intervention in these open spaces. We also had good rainfall last year and the pollution levels were also low in Mumbai which led to faster growth of the trees" said an official of the garden cell.
More than 36,000 saplings were planted at the Bhakti Park Garden, Chembur which is the highest number of saplings planted in a single location. Nearly 18,000 saplings were planted at Manori Village and approximately 7,200 saplings were planted at Powai lake front.
According to experts, Plants in the Miyawaki-developed forests grow faster than normal forests. Saplings planted in Miywaki conditions grow to the average height of a tree in half the time.
