SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY NURSERY DEVELOPMENT (SCND)
The purpose of developing sustained community nursery by ensuring farmer and youth participation in promoting tree planting in agricultural and public lands along the foothill villages of Northern slop of Palni Hills of Western Ghats through agro-forestry and afforestration development activities. The reserve forests in northern slope of Palni hills of Western Ghats in Dindigul district consists of dense dry and moist, deciduous forests with scrub jungle.
The region is subjected to exploitation by human interference, encroachments for cultivation, poaching, collection of timber for commercial purposes, intense fuel wood gathering and grazing, forest fires, during summer that leads to deterioration, and the total destruction of existing ecosystem and biodiversity of the hills.The project intends to retain the valuable top soil, its fertility and biomass by increasing the green cover in the green cover in the agricultural, rain-fed and waste lands through intensive afforestration and agro-forestry development programmes to combat the effects of global warming and climate change. This is being done with the community participation, including farmers, youths and students. The land for the nursery was given by Mr. A. Palanivel, a farmer in Kathiranampatty . He is interested in nature conservation and tree planting activities. He has given his land for 10 years period to establish and maintain nursery. The outcomes expected based on the establishment of sustainable community nursery is Active farmer participation in promoting their rain-fed and waste lands through intensive tree planting activities results conserving soil fertility, moisture and increase in biomass of the soil Increase in the area of green cover in the rain-fed areas and waste lands Youth and Students act as the community based peer force in disseminating awareness among the farmers and the communities on the need and importance of tree planting to combat the effects of global warming and climate change.
