The Haryana Forest Department has started aerial seeding across the state on a pilot basis with special focus on the Aravalli region.

Do you know?

The Aravalli range is considered the “lungs” of the polluted National Capital Region.

What is Aerial Seeding?

• Aerial seeding is a technique of plantation wherein seed balls – seeds covered with a mixture of clay, compost, char and other components.
• They are sprayed on the ground using aerial devices, including planes, helicopters or drones.

How does this technique work?

• Seeds balls or seed pellets are dispersed in a targeted area by the low-flying drones, falling to the ground with the help of the coating of clay, compost, char and other material.
• Coating provides the required weight for seeds to drop on a predetermined location rather than disperse in the wind.
• These pellets will then sprout when there is enough rain, with the nutrients present within them helping in the initial growth.

Why Aravallis?

• Aravallis these days is severely inundated due to heavy mining and has undergone rapid development and construction activities.

What are the advantages of this technique?

• Areas that are inaccessible, have steep slopes, are fragmented or disconnected with no forest routes, making conventional plantation difficult, can be targeted with aerial seeding.
• Furthermore, the process of the seed’s germination and growth is such that it requires no attention after it is dispersed – the reason why seed pellets are known as the “fire and forget” way of the plantation.
• They eliminate the need for ploughing and digging holes in the soil and the seeds do not need to be planted, since they are already surrounded by soil, nutrients, and microorganisms.
• The clay shell of these pellets along with the other items in the mixture also protects them from birds, ants and rats.

What kind of species can be dispersed using aerial seeding?

• The species selected have to be native to the area and hardy, with seeds that are of an appropriate size for preparing seedballs and have to have a higher survival percentage.
• It is critical that the timing of the seeding be correct in order for the plantation to be successful.

Can this replace conventional plantation methods?

• Seeding should be done only on a pilot basis to evaluate the effectiveness of the technology and the dispersal mechanism.
• Conventional methods of afforestation cannot be replaced but supplemented with areal seeding.
• In this case, the technique will allow plantation in sections of the Aravallis that are either difficult to access or inaccessible altogether.

Back2Basics: Aravalli Range

• The Aravalli Range is a mountain range running approximately 692 km in a south-west direction, starting near Delhi, passing through southern Haryana and Rajasthan, and ending in Gujarat.
• The highest peak is Guru Shikhar at 1,722 metres (5,650 ft).
• The Aravalli Range, an eroded stub of ancient mountains, is the oldest range of Fold Mountains in India.
• The natural history of the Aravalli Range dates back to times when the Indian Plate was separated from the Eurasian Plate by an ocean.
• Aravalli, being the old fold mountains, have stopped growing higher due to the cessation of upward thrust caused by the stopping of movement of the tectonic plates in the Earth’s crust below them.
• In ancient times, Aravalli was extremely high but since have worn down almost completely by millions of years of weathering, whereas the Himalayas being young fold mountains are still continuously rising.

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