The National Highways Authority (NHAI) is planning to plant Miyawaki plantations on land parcels adjacent to the National Highways in the Delhi-NCR region to increase the green cover along the national highways, a PIB press release stated.
The NHAI has identified 53 acres of land in and around Delhi-NCR for the Miyawaki plantations. The largest area of 4.7 acres is in the Haryana section of the Dwarka Expressway, 4.1 acres near Sohna on the Delhi-Vadodara section of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, 5 acres each at Chabri and Kharkhara interchanges on NH 152D of Ambala, the Kotputli corridor in Haryana, 12 acres at the Shamli bypass on NH-709B, 9.2 acres at the Duhai interchange on the Eastern Peripheral Expressway near Ghaziabad, and 5.6 acres near the Meerut-Najibabad section of NH-34 in Uttar Pradesh.
The ground preparation for the Miyawaki plantations has already begun, and the plantation will be taken up during the upcoming monsoon season. The Miyawaki plant is a Japanese approach to ecological restoration and afforestation development. The method involves the planting of native and indigenous species of plants in a short period of time. This method enables trees to grow ten times faster, creating dense, native, and biodiverse forests. The Miyawaki plantations have numerous advantages, including improved air and soil quality, increased biodiversity, carbon absorption, soil restoration, and habitat creation for local flora and fauna.