Aerial seeding deployed to make the Aravallis greener

The process would see pellets of seeds covered with clay and compost being dispersed from air

The Haryana Forest Department would use aerial seeding - the process of dispersing seeds covered in compost via a helicopter or drone, to improve the greenery of the Aravallis, as reported by The Indian Express.

In this case, the dispersion would be done by a drone developed by a startup incubated at IIT Kanpur.

Aerial seeding, a form of broadcast seeding, is traditionally used in areas that are difficult to access.

“In the context of the Aravalli region this will be specially useful since there are many areas that are either difficult to reach or inaccessible altogether, making traditional methods of plantation difficult,” a forest department official told IE.

This will be the pilot phase of the project and would be tested on 100 acres of land. The project would require women in local areas to be deployed to make the seed balls, thus generating employment.

Acacia senegal (Khairi), Ziziphus mauritiana (Beri), and Holarrhena spp (Inderjo), all species with a high likelihood of surviving in the area, would be planted.

Aerial seeding means the plants do not need any additional

The drones could carry almost two kilograms of seed in one go and come equipped with a ‘precision delivery’ feature that can be adjusted according to seeds of different sizes.

Officials estimate that the drones would be able to disperse almost 20,000-30,000 seeds a day.

“The drones will disperse 5,000 seeds per hectare. Survival rate in this sort of plantation tends to be low, less than 50%. So, the point of planting such a high quantity is that, even if the survival rate is 20%, we will have 1,000 trees,” said Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Vinod Kumar told the source.