Trees are good for the environment, everyone knows that trees produce oxygen which makes our planet unique in this solar system. It gives life. The importance of tree plantation is obvious, still, only a handful of people are engaged in conserving this unique gift of nature.

The forest cover is rapidly vanishing from your land, and the trees are being removed to ensure livelihood and infrastructural support for the increasing population. This is the right time when we recognize the importance of plantation and contribute towards it.   

A group of women and men from Sohmynting village in Meghalaya’s West Jaintia Hills District, one of the FARM Northeast III project areas decided to conserve the environment. On January 2021, the FARM team facilitated a meeting of the villagers with the allied department to create an interface to apply for a project on Nursery Plantation. The FARM facilitated the Tylli Dei Lang group in getting the project under the Village Natural Resource Management Committee (VNRMC) from Meghalaya Basin Management Agency (MBMA), an SPV under the Planning Department of the Government of Meghalaya, is implementing the CLLMP, which is sponsored by the World Bank.  

Jaintia Hills Development Society (JHDS), Meghalaya with support from Caritas India and Misereor Germany have been able to facilitate the group comprising 8 women and 6 men from Sohmynting village in West Jaintia Hills by promoting them to practice nursery for trees sapling and fruits tree sapling to earn income from it. The support helps in establishing community nurseries for the production of planting materials required for afforestation (protection and conservation)/multi-layered plantation/agroforestry. Afforestation and reforestation initiatives are also undertaken along with measures to conserve and protect bio-resources.   

Starting with the nursery plantation, the group had a meeting to discuss and plan the process of establishing and maintaining the nursery which was estimated up to one lakh fifty thousand. With regards to the amount, half they received from MBMA for poly house and the balance amount was spent by the group. They spend Rs.1,20,000 for a temporary poly house and Rs.30,000 for purchasing 7,000 tree seedlings. The group also took the initiative to find tree seedlings and saplings from the jungle for nursery plantation.   

Since its formation in 2021, the SHG group of Tylli dei Lang could not do any marketing due to COVID-19 and other reasons but this year they started selling from their tree nursery and earned Rs. 60,000 as of now.  

The earnings are saved in a group bank account, and they plan to utilise the money for the extension of the nursery. JHDS is already in the process of further extending such successful interventions and is grateful to Caritas India and Misereor Germany for their support.