Hyderabad: Seed balls Throwing Programme needs greater public thrust
Hyderabad: The 14-year-old seed throwing programme is badly hit due to coronavirus lockdown. Also, there has been a lukewarm response from the public with only a few volunteers attending the programme this year. The founder of the initiative, Krishnam Raju launched a novel Seed Ball Campaign 14 years back to increase the green cover in the city. He used to run a nursery selling saplings on a cycle rickshaw travelling to various places and educate the people on the importance of environment protection.
"Taking inspiration from Kenya's Wangari Maathai, who started with a nursery in her backyard and planted five crore saplings starting a green movement, we are trying to emulate and bring a similar green revolution in our state and country," said Krishnam Raju. "Our ambition is to throw seeds so that they could grow to trees in a 500 acre land creating a habitat for animals and birds," he added.
"We are a 15-member team mostly comprising of retired employees from ECIL. We believe that it is the responsibility of every person to contribute for the environment protection activities," said K Sridhar Rao, production controller, Seeds Throwing Programme.
A team of people from ECIL, NFC, ETDC and other volunteers are conducting this programme successfully every year. They have a small nursery in Eshwarpuri colony and the programme is run from this place.
This year due to COVID-19, there is a lukewarm response from the public. About 10,000 saplings are ready for distribution but could only 6,000 seeds could be distributed.
"In the beginning we started with distribution of about 1,000 saplings and now it has increased to a tune of 15,000. Plantation, distribution of sparrow nests, distribution of water feeding bins for birds, seed throwing in barren lands are the other activities taken up," said Sridhar Rao.
A variety of seeds of plants including custard apple, black berries, panaja, maaradi, banni and medicinal plants like tulasi, vidhara, giloy, alovera, kadipatta etc, are thrown in areas where lands are barren. This would help in increasing the green plants which would help protecting the environment and flora and the fauna.
Balakrishna, Babu rao, Ramakrishan, Srinivas, Vijayalakhmi, Santosh, Lakshmipati, Kiran, Murthy, Ramanujachari, Sai, Som Venkataramana, Swati, Venkat Rao, Sunil, Ramnathu and Sandhya are the other team members putting their efforts in developing and maintaining city's green cover.
What is a seed bomb?
It is a technique of planting trees by embedding organic seed balls in the ground. It is also known as aerial reforestation. Vegetation can be introduced in any land by throwing or dropping seed balls in the ground.
How to make seed bombs
♥ Wash and dry seeds but still maintain the moisture, which is essential for germination
♥ Make a paste of soil and cow dung in 3:1 ratio
♥ Slowly add water and roll the mixture in little balls
♥ Collect seeds of various medicinal plants and fruits
♥ Press seeds into the mixture balls and roll again
♥ Let the balls dry in sun
♥ Once dry, they are ready for 'bombing'
seed-balls.com says the only substantial difference between seed balls and seed bombs is what you call them. "Bomb" sounds more subversive, and so it's gaining popularity among guerrilla gardeners. When properly made, the seed ball or bomb will have enough seed to ensure germination, but not so many seeds that the plants will choke each other.