THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Extending the Miyawaki forest programme, the Prisons Department is nurturing another Miyawaki-styled forest at its Special Sub Jail in Thiruvananthapuram in remembrance of Malayalam poet and activist Sugathakumari who passed away recently. The programme is done in collaboration with UST Global, a Technopark-based company.
Director-General of Prisons Rishiraj Singh formally inaugurated the planting of the Miyawaki forest a few days back. “The forest cover is coming up on 20 cents of land near the Special Sub Jail at a project cost of `10 lakh. Over 3,000 saplings consisting of diverse trees, medicinal plants and other varied species are planted as part of the programme, maintained with the support of jail inmates.” said a prison department official.
The planting of diverse flora was done with the support of the inmates, IT employees and prison department officials. Gandhi Smrithivanam, a Miyawaki model forest at District Jail, Poojappura Miyawaki is a technique that was pioneered by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki with the aim of building dense native forests.
Under the HarithaKeralam Mission, the government had decided to create green urban spaces on the Miyawaki model in about 2 to 5 cents of land available in various government institutions.As part of the observance, on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in 2019, the Department of Prisons had instructed all the jails in the state to develop Miyawaki model forests wherever fallow land was available. Following this, a pilot project was taken up by the superintendent of District jail to set up a Miyawaki model forest in the district Jail in Poojappura Prison complex.
“For the project, we collaborated with the Kerala Bio-diversity Board and the Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute, Palode who provided the technical support as well as the plant saplings. About 1,000 odd saplings consisting of diverse trees, creepers, medicinal plants along with 50 saplings of bamboo of about 25 different varieties were planted,” said Sathyaraj D, former superintendent of district jail, who is currently the joint superintendent of Central Jail, Poojappura.
The forest was made on the 20 cents of land set aside by the District Jail for waste management which was later cleared and prepared by the inmates for planting trees. A small garden and water fountain was created inside Miyawaki forest which has been christened Gandhi Smrithivanam. An open well was also created inside the premises to ensure water for the plants.