Bankura forest dept adopts seed bomb technique for plantation at Susunia Hills

The Bankura North Forest division has adopted seed bomb technique for plantation in a portion of Susunia Hills in Bankura district that has remained barren for nearly 20 years.

Eight forest staff of the Chhatna region, under the north division in the district, recently climbed up the hill with 10 bags of seed balls and scattered them around the foothills. The work was supervised by Esha Bose, forest ranger from Chhatna.

“The Susunia Hills is elephant-prone and so the conventional way of plantation cannot be pursued here.

The saplings get destroyed trampled by the tuskers. The seed bombing technique is cheaper and and is considered as a result-oriented technique in elephant prone areas,” a senior forest officer of Bankura North division said.

The cost of sapling plantation on one hectare of land in conventional way is Rs 1 lakh per hectare while in the case of seed bomb, it is one third.

200 seed bombs have been scattered on an experimental basis and presently, it will be executed on 2 hectares of land. There are plans of extending the same to 25 hectares, if the results are fruitful.

According to officials, seeds of fast growing species of trees like Babla, Akashmoni, and Subabul have been mixed with clay and organic manure to give it them a shape of crude bombs and later they are scattered. These seed bombs are prepared extensively in Chhatna Range’s forest nursery.

The seed bombs will be dropped in phases through out the monsoon season in the barren area.

“The other parts of the Hills have enough plantation.

Only a certain portion is barren. We hope that this technique will yield good results,” the official added.