Woman from Japan leads volunteers to drop Seed bombs in Aravalis
Seed Bombs is a Japanese concept to protect seeds by rolling seeds in the clay balls. It was introduced first in India in Bangalore in 2017, and now in Gurgaon
Gurugram. July 12, 2019. A group of volunteers jointly led by Nupur Tewari – a Japan-based healing expert, and environmentalist Alka Saran dispersed seed bombs (seed balls) in the eco-fragile Aravali hills in the wee hours of Friday in Gurugram.
As the monsoon comes knocking the doors, the time is ripe for sowing seeds of native species rolled in the clay balls, as are these called seed bombs in Japan. The idea of using seed bombs for afforestation was introduced by Japanese organic farmer Masanobu Fukuoka last century.
The seeds are wrapped in the balls of clay and compost to protect the seeds from bugs, insects, rodents, ants or birds that eat these seeds away.
The volunteers were drawn from Healindya, an Indian arm of Heal Tokyo, Japan and Gurgugram based Let’s Plant Gurugram, who jointly ran the drive in the Aravali hills in village Ghata on Gurugram -Faridabad Road.
“We threw seed bombs/balls carrying native seed species like Neem, Peepal and Chamrod as this the perfect time to sow seeds as it has started raining a bit. The idea behind the Friday drive was to raise awareness for the need of saving our environment by growing more trees, especially on the Aravalis. We are actually into yoga and healing but use various means to reach out to the society,” said Nupur Tewari who has been living in Japan for 17 years. She is on India visit these days to meet the volunteers.
The volunteers who took part in the drive included Let’s Plant Gurugram members Manmohan Singh a Haryana government officer and a nature lover who has grown many trees himself; Leena, a resident of DLF ph-1, Gaurav Gandhi an IT professional who just returned from Norway and Dinesh from Delhi.
The volunteers also used Amaltas seed pods to dig and embed seed bombs in the soil. These Amaltas pods were left in the forest as food for the monkeys, jackals, hyenas, Nilgayis and other animals. These animals, in turn, disperse the seeds of Amaltas through their droppings.
Alka Saran, the founder of Let’s Plant Gurugram group introduced seed bombs
Now, she targets to aerial drop about one hundred thousand (100,000) seed bombs of various native species in Aravalis if she gets some organisation or individual support here to bear the expenses of a chopper or small Cessna-type aircraft.
“In 2017, when I went to Bangalore in summers, I found Indian Institute of Science (IISc) experimenting with the seed bombs which were dropped in aerial distribution around lakes there. Then I thought of introducing the same concept in the Aravalis in Gurugram. On my return, I started looking for the native species to grow well in Aravalis. I made the seed bombs and started sharing the same with the hiking and trekking group Let’s Walk Gurgaon,” said Alka Saran adding that she started with 1000 Neem seed bombs as their germination rate was good, and later also added more species.
Nupur heads Heal Tokyo – a socially motivated movement in Japan where she organizes Yoga training sessions for regaining balance between mind, body and soul. The money collected from the training sessions there is used for underprivileged child education in India.
“We have recently set up Healindya – an Indian chapter of Heal Tokyo in India and have plans to set up healing centers across the country here. We also plan to prepare a team of yogis (Yoga and meditation experts) who would spread the healing message and make more and more people healthy and hearty,” Nupur said.
