Botanists have finally succeeded in revegetating the Bhatti mine region
NEW Delhi's Bhatti and Asola mines,
abandoned after endless quarrying,
were homes to hectares of extensively
degraded gullies and ravines devoid of
vegetation. Mining had threatened the
hydrological balance as well as reclamation of the soil in this area.
A team of botanists from Delhi
University led by C R Babu, director of
the Centre for Environment Management of Degraded Ecosystems, has
recently pioneered the revegetation of
these lands. He has made one ha of this
area greener and also promises to
restore the original vegetation that existed
more than a hundred years ago. Babu
explained that the team's first step to revegetate the area was to develop a
microbial community which could survive in such an environment. Following
that, an effective innoculation technology was undertaken. The bacterium was
then immobilised in a gel made of water
and nutrients. To associate the microbe
with the seed, the seed was encapsulated
with the immobilised bacterium containing gel. This resulted in an artificial
seed with microbes to fix nitrogen. The
final products were beads containing
these seeds, which were then sprayed.
Babu intends to restore the indigenous vegetation ideal for wildlife. The
steep slopes of the terrain have been
revegetated with perennial grasses as
they prevent runoff of surface water.
Acacia, Butea, Albizia and Cassia plants
also co-exist. Their roots help in restoring the porosity of rocks clogged by silt.
Babu, along with his colleagues, selected
a large number of species which were
native to the Aravallis and were part of
the original vegetation. The team collected 20 different legumes, eight species
of Acacia, 50 grasses and 50 microbes
associated with these legumes and
grasses. These microbes accelerate
establishment of the vegetation as some
of these fix nitrogen, some solubilise
insoluble nutrients, some detoxify
nutrients and some make nutrients
easily available to higher plants.
Babu was the first to devise this ecological restoration technology used in
Bhatti and Asola mine region. These two
areas are of importance to the capital,
since they are located in the watershed
region. They constitute the catchment
area as a bulk of the rainwater enters this
area. Explaining the technology Babu
says that under harsh conditions, a vegetation cover which provides organic matter is the best bet for weathering rocks
and stabilising the soil. Legumes and
grasses, which are drought-resistent and
secrete acids to weather rocks, possess
such charcteristics. They can produce
readily decomposable biomass and fix up
their own nitrogen. This is the reason the
team collected legumes, grasses and
microbes.
Within five years, the entire rocky
terrain is expected to be transformed into
a richer, greener area. The best thing
about this technology is that it cost just
about Rs 10,000 to revegetate one ha of
land. For revegetating the same area, the
forest department is known to spend
lakhs.
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