A planting project which will grow 200,000 seeds has been scheduled to do in coming monsoon season in PyinOoLwin and as a different method of planting, seeds will be put inside earth balls and dispersed by catapult, said Green Challenge Association’s chair U Aung Myo Paing.
With the aim of greening the town, Green Challenge Association previously carried out similar projects by using various methods- traditional planting method, scattering seeds by humans, catapult and hot-aired balloon.
“We will do it this year too but not sure whether it includes scattering by hot-aired balloons or not. Generally, we disperse seeds at the roadside by humans and over hills and valleys by catapult. We usually do it July and August. We’ve already collected seeds now. Making earth balls will start in June. We have aimed to disperse about 200,000 seeds a year. In Covid-19 period, although hot-aired balloon wasn’t included, we dispersed 200,000 seeds. Forests have depleted in PyinOoLwin too so the weather becomes hot sharply. We want to create forest again around the town, in particular. We can’t reach the forest, so we scatter seeds by catapulting or hot-aired balloon so that seeds will reach areas where humans can’t access. We want to have trees again in forests,” he said.
For clearing bushes and digging ditches to grow 300-500 saplings by traditional method that is scheduled to do on every Sunday, about 20-30 volunteers are needed. And it is hard to go to forests, they use dispersion by catapult, he said.
They have also requested local trekking groups, riders and bikers to help scattering seeds along their journey, as well as the association members are also asked to bring seeds when they go on trips, so that they can scatter seeds by expected amount.
It is not easy to plant hundreds of thousands of seeds by traditional methods and seeds may flow into water when it rains heavily or may get destroyed when forest fire breaks out, but it is a reward for them if just about 20,000 out of 200,000 seeds can be alive, he said.
Green Challenge Association initiated its first planting project in 2019 and grew about 20 kinds of seeds around the town, grew about 600,000 seeds in 2020 by using various methods including scattering by hot-aired balloon, scattered seeds in 2021 and 2022 without including hot-aired balloon and in 2023, they used hot-aired balloon for scattering seeds. About 30 per cent of areas, they had planted previously, have trees now.
“Trees have grown up in about 30 per cent of areas we scattered, some have became green with small groups of trees. We scatter acacia catechu, acacia tree (Htanaung) and tamarind in lower Myanmar where the weather is hot. We scattered about 20 kinds of seeds,” he said. — MT/ZS/ED
