Kerala: Now, grow trees, mortgage them

KOZHIKODE: Trees normally fetch money only when they are cut. However, it’s no more the case in Meenangadi panchayat in Wayanad district with its ‘tree bank’ scheme under the Carbon Neutral Wayanad getting a Rs 10-crore leg up in the state budget from finance minister T.M. Thomas Isaac.  Interestingly, Dr Isaac is also the mentor of the project.  The project allows a farmer/owner to mortgage trees, as one does gold, in a cooperative bank and repay the loan along with interest when selling the matured tree.

All that is required are a photograph of the tree and certificates of village officer on its ownership and agriculture officer on its value, which is a fixed percentage of its market value. Most hardwood including mahogany, jackfruit tree, anjili and other indigenous varieties are covered under the project. The panchayat will assist the farmers in nurturing the plants in the first three years.

“The panchayat will deposit '10 crore the government has offered us in the cooperative bank,” said Meenangadi panchayat president Beena Vijayan.  The fund would be a revolving facility as the money spent as aid by the state will go back to the corpus when the farmer cuts the mature tree. The interest on the deposit will also go as aid to farmers. “The panchayat will soon finalise the modalities and launch the pilot project,” panchayat Ms Beena Vijayan said. “We have already completed a survey of trees and identified spots for setting up nurseries for taking the project forward.”

A three-year old tree can fetch its owner Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 as nurturing aid, Ms Vijayan said. “It will encourage farmers to grow trees in farm lands reducing the carbon emissions,” Ms Vijayan said.  The project will be extended to all panchayats later, said Kalpetta MLA C.K. Saseendran. “The aim is to make Wayanad a carbon-neutral district. This model can be replicated in all local bodies located in ecologically fragile spots across the nation.” Interestingly, the project is taking wings with the years-long intellectual support from none other than Dr Isaac who has been actively involved in each stage of its evolution.