KMDA to develop butterfly park and Miyawaki Forest at Rabindra Sarobar

kolkata: The Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) is developing a butterfly park and Miyawaki Forest at Rabindra Sarobar in a significant stride towards augmenting the green cover at the Lake.

KMDA, the custodian of the Rabindra Sarobar has its staff quarters at the bank of the Lake which has been lying in a dilapidated condition.

The quarters will be demolished and the butterfly park will be developed in that place. A senior KMDA official said that they have identified two patches of land in the Lake for creating the Miyawaki forest which requires land of about 1500 sq km. “An NGO that has expertise in such work has been roped in and they are developing the Miyawaki forest from their CSR funds. The space close to gate number 4 has been provided by us,” he added.

The intense forest cover will be created in a tiered manner where trees of different types and sizes will be planted.

The groundwork for the creation of the urban forestry has already started and KMDA will be putting up a display board at the particular site stating clearly that the space has been reserved for Miyawaki Forest.

Compared to more conventional methods of forest plantation, it has certain important advantages.

It works very well in urban settings. In comparison to traditional forests, Miyawaki developed forest areas have been found to have more biodiversity and are proven to capture more carbon emissions.

Akira Miyawaki, the famous Japanese botanist and environmentalist invented the method of setting up forests where the trees grow at a faster pace.

Environmentalist S M Ghosh who is a regular morning walker at the Lake welcomed the move by KMDA. “The majority of the plants are being procured from Junglemahal and the project has been christened as Rangamati,” he added.