Plant a tree in West Bengal

About the state 

West Bengal is a state located in East India. It has a coastline that touches the Bay of Bengal. Sunderbans is a biological hotspot with Bengal Tigers and many other animals and birds found. It is home to tigers, leopard, deer and many bird species. Due to population pressure and development, the state is losing its forests and tree cover. The project aims to focus on increasing the farmer income and increasing the forest and tree cover. A part of the contributions will go to planting trees under agroforestry for the farmers and another part to maintain the forest cover by planting forest trees in the state. The trees that will be planted on the community lands and near forest borders will help to become places where birds and animals can live and eat. The agroforestry will help the farmers to get fruits, bark, medicine etc which they can consume and also sell to get extra revenue. Be a part of this project to maintain the biodiversity of the state and also help farmers to better their lives. Every contribution will see at least 0.25 MT of carbon getting fixed.

Impact in Numbers 

Number of trees to be planted 100,000

Carbon Fixed  300 Kgs per tree.

CO2 reduction from atmosphere by 1100 Kgs per tree.

Farmers to be positively impacted 2000

Ecological impact

The trees that are being planted are selected based on the needs of the animals and birds in that area. West Bengal has a wide variety of animal and bird population and they depend on the trees for food and shelter. Every tree that is planted is different and it helps in maintaining the biodiversity of the state. Every tree helps to preserve the life of animals and birds. With an amazing array of wildlife and trees, the plantation will help in increasing the numbers.

• The trees planted shall help in controlling the soil erosion.
• The project shall be able to increase the number of trees that are less in number in the state.
• Increase in the overall green cover of the state.

Positive impact on farmers

• Farmers get high quality saplings to plant in their lands adjacent to the forests. Fruit trees, Timber trees, Medicinal plants.
• Increase in the farmer income by 10% over a 10 year period of time.
• Better economic conditions of the farmers help in getting education for the children, nutrition for the family.

About the project

The project is an ongoing project to help achieve increased greenery in the state. Under this project, sites are identified and farmer groups contacted for planting trees on their lands close to the forest areas. High quality of seedling of fruit trees, timber trees, medicinal plants, forest trees are identified and they are then planted on the lands of the farmers. The farmers are explained on how to raise them, best practices for the same and benefits that they shall be getting in the next 2 years, 5 years, 10 years and 20 years. A periodic visit of the experts is done for the same so that they can monitor the progress and also guide the farmers. The current condition of the farmers and forest cover is recorded and stored on e platforms. This is updated every time of the visit so that the improvement can be noted and measured. The project keeps on identifying new sites and farmer groups so that the benefit can be spread to all.

Technology

The trees are geotagged. The area boundary is marked using GPS. Farmer details along with the images. All the data is captured and stored through mobile apps directly from the field. Carbon fixing that is happening yearly is calculated by using the equations developed by the experts for different species in app and reports. Total transparency is maintained in getting the data, storing the data and analysing the data.

Impact assessment

The impact that is being created by the project for wildlife and farmers is measured. All data is captured in regular intervals and the same is analysed by comparing with the previous data on the same parameters calculated a few months ago. The change is measured against the planned results.

Reports

The project reports are prepared and sent to the contributors. The report covers the following

1) Trees status as on the last visit made

2) Any mortality in the trees planted

3) Carbon fixed in MT from the start of the project

4) Quantity of fruits that are being produced by the planted trees

5) Economic impact on the farmers.

6) Ecological impact created.