Malappuram: No sprout of green goes untended in Maranchery panchayat of Kerala's Malappuram district. The district, which earned notoriety as the 'cancer panchayat' some ten decades ago, made a valiant multi-pronged fight to be a role model in fighting the scourge.
As part of the many steps in healthy living, including a plastic recycling unit and steps for waste segregation, Maranchery developed 'Nattumara Nursery' in 2016, a seed and sapling nursery of indigenous trees.
The MGNREGS workers of the panchayat collect scattered seeds of mango, jackfruit and other available fruits to sprout shoots on their residential premises. After the shoots develop into saplings, they are raised in plastic grow bags and are given for planting.
35,000 saplings
The saplings are given free-of-cost to residents who need it. “The nursery now has a total of 35,000 saplings, ready to be distributed free. After the MGNREGS workers started this work, the public too developed a sense of 'going back to nature.' More and more families got initiated to farming and this created an effective homestead farming cluster,” Maranchery panchayat president E Sindhu said.
The MGNREGS tends to trees planted at public places for three years, or until they attain a certain health.
Medical expo
'Med Expo Maranchery,' a medical exhibition at Government Higher Secondary School, Maranchery, from March 30 to April 4, was a great step in promoting indigenous seeds and saplings including paddy and tuber. Experts like Suma TR, scientist, M S Swaminathan Community Agro Bio-diversity Centre, Wayanad and Cheruvayal Raman, traditional paddy seed custodian, interacted with the public at the nature-agriculture-food-health exhibition.
The Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM) had brought in their mobile water testing lab and the residents were free to test their water samples at half the rate. The public water sources like ponds were tested for free.
The project for 2018 is a bio-diversity park near the gas crematorium in Thuruvanam. “Other than the shade trees found in the area, more trees like peepal and banyan and other medicinal plants will be planted. The aim is to get more oxygen releasing plants. The public will be urged to plant at least one tree on their residential premises,” says Rajan KP, Bio-diversity Management Committee (BMC) convenor.
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