Thirty-five years after planting his first tree, Abdul Kareem, an environmental activist, has succeeded in growing a 32-hectare forest on land that was once dry and arid in Kerala state, southern India. His forest has provideed numerous benefits: it has helped the local environment, tourism and is also a powerful response to climate change.
With more than 800 plant species, 300 medicinal plants, thousands of trees and hundreds of birds and insects, “Kareem’s forest” looks very much like a naturally occurring forest. However, all of it was planted using his two hands and sheer willpower. Until the early 1980s, the land was dry, cracked and rocky. But that didn’t discourage Kareem, who has worked tirelessly since 1977 to make this hostile terrain verdant.
Researchers, students and environmentalists from all over the world now visit Kareem’s forest. In fact, ‘Kareem’s model” has been added to the curriculum in Indian universities as an example of how to reforest an area without using a single chemical product. Kareem has received many prizes for his forest, which is now a tourist destination in Kerala. He says that he is proud of his work, but his greatest hope is that it will serve as a concrete example of how to fight global warming.
“I want to prove that, with determination, nature can regenerate”
I grew up and worked in different Indian cities in polluted, urban environments. I was always attracted to trees, which represented peace and tranquility to me. I worked various jobs and, in 1977, when I had saved enough, I bought a plot of land in my home region of Kerala with the idea of planting a forest.
Source:- observers.france24.com