Saving cities with trees

Older residents of Kathmandu had not seen such floods in their lifetime. The Bagmati, Bishnumati and their tributaries broke through embankments and swept through built-up areas.

As the rivers rose, the flood eroded away the edges of rivers in many places. But here in Teku, a dense forest protected the banks.

The forest patch was planted by Lily Leaves, a social enterprise that employs the Miyawaki Method to quickly create dense forest cover of native plants on degraded urban land. The technique was first developed by Japanese Botanist Akira Miyawaki in the early 1970s, and is used around the world.

The multilayer forest has a variety of plants growing to different heights on aerated soil fertilised by compost so the plants can root and grow faster.

The saplings are densely packed, which seems counterintuitive to quick growth. But the competition actually forces the plants to grow taller faster towards sunlight. Miyawaki forests also rapidly become biodiverse ecosystems of their own and need minimal maintenance.

“This used to be a dumpsite, with scavenging dogs and crows. It was full of flies,” recalls Lily Katuwal KC of Lily Leaves. “Look, now there are butterflies, bees, and even squirrels.” Such animals have become rare sights in crowded Kathmandu.  

Katuwal was inspired by a Miyawaki forest in Dhanusha district planted by the Mithila Wildlife Trust, founded by forest and wildlife conservationist Dev Narayan Mandal.

Katuwal heads a small team, and does much of the work herself -- clearing and preparing the sites, planting and nurturing saplings. But the biggest challenge has been to navigate an apathetic local government bureaucracy.

Site 1 in Teku was started just a year ago on a landfill on the left bank of the Bishnumati, and has already grown into a lush forest (pictured). Site 2 was planted four months ago in Dallu, and Site 3 last month in Swayambhu.

The flood waters have now receded, and all three sites survived because the densely packed trees protected the banks.

Site 1 has 2,500 young trees in just a 1,200sq m area, with 38 native species including Rudraksha, Phirphire, Neem, Jasmine, Guava, and Hibiscus.

Sites 2 and 3 have even more variety and include Timur, Chestnut and Rhododendron.
Despite the benefits Katuwal and her team have had to battle the local ward. At Site 1, officials ripped out a border fence. When building a retaining wall, contractors mixed concrete right at the site and killed many of the trees. Bags of garbage were recently dumped in the river beside the forest.

At Site 1, seeing that the ground had been levelled, the local government arrived with a JCB excavator to build volleyball and basketball courts in the open space. “But we had all the necessary papers and permits, so we went ahead,” Katuwal recalls.

What is most surprising about the work of Lily Leaves is that it has thrived in spite of obstacles from officialdom. This should have been the work of Kathmandu Municipality under Mayor Balen Shah and elected ward councils, but the project proves that much can be achieved despite the hurdles they put along the way.

At Site 2 in Dallu, local strongmen who were using the government land as a lucrative bus park tried to sabotage the plantation. Members of Lily Leaves were threatened with violence. 

And at Site 3, locals broke into the plantation and trampled the saplings to dry marijuana within sight of a police station nearby.

The flooding of Bishnumati has dirtied Site 1 again. Plastic trash is everywhere, and pipes spew raw sewage right into the river. Dogs wade into the smelly water, and kites perch on the wires overhead looking for their next meal.

What makes this squalid sight slightly bearable to behold is the patch of greenery with trees swaying gently in the breeze. Amidst the roar of traffic on Teku Bridge one can make out the sound of birds chirping from Site 1.

All this would not have been possible without the commitment of Lily Katuwal KC, her team of passionate volunteers, and sponsors.

Lily Leaves is gaining momentum. In the past year alone the social enterprise planted 6,500 saplings using the Miyawaki Technique of quick ‘greenification’ of neglected land.

Students from Kathmandu schools took part in some of the planting, and with so many native plants in the same place, the forest is now even an educational trip.

Government backing would speed up the process, but Lily Katuwal knows not to wait for it as she starts the search for Site 4.