Seed balls to help boost green cover

Pune: This Environment Day, city-based organizations took up the matter of increasing the

tree cover

with the help of an organic solution —

seed balls

.

Workshops were held recently to spread awareness of the importance and technique of making seed balls, which help

boost

the survival of seeds in the germination stage. On May 20 and 27, Bhavtal magazine and Society for Science, Environment and People had organized workshops to spread awareness of this new technique of seed plantation. As many as 450 people from various sections participated in the two workshops.

The editor of the magazine, Abhijit Ghorpade, said the activity’s primary aim was to engage the public. “The people will only feel for the cause if they are attached to it. Through direct participation, the issue of protection and spread of green cover will become a personal issue for them,” he said.

“The participants managed to create about 9,000 and odd seed balls. Of these, we shall be giving 5,400 seed balls to the government for its upcoming sapling

plantation drive

in July as well as to experiment on some of the balls to check the survival rate is boosted how much for various seeds in different terrains,” Ghorpade said.

The remaining seed balls had been given to the participants for distributing in the places they visited in Western Ghats and in the grassland areas around Pune, he added.