OOTY: The Jal Shakti Abiyan scheme, a flagship scheme of the BJP government that aims to accelerate water harvesting, conservation, ground water recharge along with water body restoration, watershed management and intensive afforestation schemes, was set in motion in the hills here on Friday.
In a symbolic beginning, students of the Government Arts College and JSS College of Pharmacy here and Toda tribals joined hands with the district administration and forest department and planted native shola tree saplings on the Muthanadmund slopes near here to restore the original hill ecology.
While the unique shola forest of the Nilgiris has waned over the decades due to unplanned development activities, the Nilgiris forest department has now taken up the task of reviving the shola-grassland ecosystem that is known for its ability to store sub-soil water under its cushion of a unique root system that acts as a sponge and releases water slowly into the nearby streams around the year.
Students and tribals planted 200 saplings of shola species. Ms.J. Innocent Divya, collector of Nilgiris, who inaugurated the scheme by planting a sapling said that this was an attempt to replace exotic flora with native flora to build a natural forest with community involvement for water and nature conservation.
