WILD-EYED WANDERER
In times when degradation of forests and loss of green cover have become corollaries to development, Vijay Dhasmana is on a noble mission—growing forests. His “rewilding” initiative re-introduces native species of wild foliage on a large scale to sites stripped of green cover and recreates natural habitats. This is different from reforestation which uses only well-known trees or ornamental plants that need a lot of resources to maintain.
“It is not about planting trees, but creating self-sustaining ecosystems that don’t need human control,” says Dhasmana. This is easier said than done. Apart from meticulous research of the habitat and the native flora, the biggest challenge of rewilding is to find ways to regrow plant species that grow only naturally. Finding seeds of these wild plants is a laborious task in itself and then to get them to grow is another exacting exercise. One has to be mindful of the climate conditions and allowing natural processes, like pollination and seed dispersal, through meticulous interventions, like introducing particular insects or other plants symbiotic to the growth of other species.
Dhasmana, apart from mobilising citizens, sponsors and communities, also has the onerous task of educating the babus and municipal heads that a wild space is good and to let these spaces be.
One of the best examples of Dhasmana’s work is the Aravalli Biodiversity Park in Gurgaon. It used to be a 380 acre abandoned mining site with a bed of quartzite rock bared of all soil cover till a few years ago. Thanks to an initiative undertaken by ‘iamgurgaon’, an NGO, reforestation and rewilding activities at the site began in 2011 and now the park has over 150,000 plants and trees of 300 species, all of them native and many reintroduced in Haryana after years. “It would not have been possible without the guidance of Dhasmana,” says Latika Thukral, co-founder of ‘iamgurgaon’, who spearheaded this project. “It is now a robust wilderness in the middle of prime real estate,” she adds. The reforested area is now home to a thriving wildlife of snakes, jackals, deer, porcupines, palm civets, lizards and butterflies. It has also become a haven for 175 species of birds, making it one of Delhi NCR’s richest birding habitats.
Dhasmana is currently working on several rewilding projects, which include creation of a 5.6 km forest corridor at Chakkarpur-Wazirabad Bundh in Gurgaon, an eco-restoration of 2 km of Badshahpur Nala, rewilding of the Sikandarpur watershed along with 60 acres of Aravalli landscape and the eco-restoration of a 115-acre sand dune area near Jaipur with wild flora typical of the Thar. The forest man is hard at work. ■
“IT IS NOT ABOUT PLANTING TREES, IT IS ABOUT CREATING SELF-SUSTAINING ECOSYSTEMS