Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary to host Delhi's first seed ball plantation drive

NEW DELHI: The forest and wildlife department will drop ‘seed balls’ of native species using drones and catapults for the first time at Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary on Aug 10.
The balls have been prepared using a mixture of soil, cow dung, neem cake and trichoderma — a plant-beneficial fungus, with a seed pressed in the middle. Forest officials said the exercise would be undertaken during a mega plantation drive at Asola, along with the manual plantation of saplings.The department plans to throw 1 lakh such balls across Delhi this monsoon, inlcuding the floodplain and the ridges.
A senior official said they had decided to use seed balls to promote greenery and ensure plantation in remote or difficult locations. The seed balls will be dumped using drone, catapult and dibbling. A fourth method, paramotor, which is like a small helicopter, is still being discussed.
“We plan to drop these seed balls using drones or catapults. At some places, we will use the dibbling method in which a small area is dug up for manually inserting the seeds. The plan is to ensure plantation in inaccessible areas like mining pits or small islands that have come up in the Yamuna,” said an official.
In the first phase, the department has decided to throw around 10,000 seed balls or tablets at the sanctuary. Seed tablets are rectangular and smaller in size and contain small seeds like guava. For seed balls, species like neem, pipal, guava and pilkhan along with some grasses have been used.
Suneesh Buxy, additional principal chief conservator of forest, said, “This progressive approach not only accelerates the natural regeneration process but also aids in preventing soil erosion and maintaining the ecological balance of the sanctuary and the ridge.”
It also serves as a model for sustainable conservation practices that can be applied in other inaccessible areas, promoting biodiversity and the overall health of the forest ecosystem, Buxy added. The seeds of indigenous trees of the ridge and a few fruit trees for fauna, especially avifauna and monkeys, are being used, he pointed out.
The forest department will carry out a survey after six months to one year to determine the survival rate. “Such a technique is being adopted globally. After shaping the mixture like a ball and pressing seeds in the middle, the balls are dried in the shade, away from direct sunlight. Once the balls are dried, they are ready for landing into forest land. Germination has already started inside,” said an official.