Artificial forest to come up in Hebri village

The members of ‘Namma Mane Namma Mara’ will plant saplings of 51 species to form a ‘Pancha Shakthi Bana’ Mukkani village in Shivapura, Hebri, on Sunday.

Gururaj Sanil, a team member, told reporters that the forest is being created in order to rehabilitate snakes, birds and other animal species, which are displaced owing to the destruction of ‘Naga Bana’ (anthills).

“The land which was purchased by a builder had three Naga Banas, one with snakes. The owner of the land, Mohammed Ansar was, therefore, requested to provide some of the land for rehabilitation of the reptiles that get displaced due to destruction of habitat,” he said.

“There were 40,000 to 50,000 anthills in the undivided Dakshina Kannada district. The number, however, is slowly decreasing as people have started encroaching upon areas for construction purposes,” Sanil said with worry.

Sanil said that it is a small attempt to save the forest. “The people should come forward to grow forests to replace those that they have destroyed. Whether it is an anthill or any other forest form, it would be the habitat for countless biodiversities. Ansar, who has given five cents of land adjacent to the land he purchased, will not claim the ownership of the land. The proposed plantation would take place on Sunday,” he explained.

Around 51 species of trees – some of which are very rare – would be part of afforestation process. The varieties include ‘Ashwatha’, ‘Ala’, ‘Renge’, ‘Karmaru’, ‘Kuntala’, ‘Beyne’, ‘Kasaraka’, ‘Gopada’, ‘Palasha’, ‘Kiskara’, ‘Bogimara’, ‘Garadupatala’, ‘Gulagunji’, ‘Manjotte’, ‘Agnisheeke’ and ‘Nagalingapuspha’.The programme will also mark the release of the book ‘Huttada Sutta Mutta’, authored by Gururaj Sanil.