Thursday, April 18, 2024
Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki’s speech had such a powerful impact on Shubhendu Sharma that it inspired him to work on a startup. Shubhendu was working as an engineer at that time but soon found himself researching and learning forest restoration techniques pioneered by the Japanese Botanist.
Afforestt, is a Bangalore-based startup focused on engineering dense forests which do not require any maintenance after a certain point of time and is self-sustaining. Shubhendu Sharma is its founder and director. It all started when Shbhendu working as engineer at Toyota Kirloskar heard a lecture of Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki at Bangalore in 2008. He was 32 then and made up his mind to work in the direction of afforestation. He started researching on the topic and worked as a volunteer for Miyawaki’s first forest project in India.
Journey of Afforestt
After intensive research and learning, to test his skill and knowledge, Shubhendu independently created the first forest in Uttarakhand using the Miyawaki method. Happy by its positive result, he launched the startup, Afforestt in 2011. First forest assignment after the launch of the startup was a backyard forest in Whitefield Bangalore.
The first large scale project of Afforestt was a 10+ acres, 1,20,000 saplings project at Shankarpalli. After that, there has been no looking back. The first international project of Afforestt was in 2015 in the US. Since then, Afforestt has created 138 Miyawaki-style forests in close to 44 cities spread over 10 countries, planting 450,026 trees altogether.
What is Miyawaki technique?
Miyawaki technique is a unique methodology that works irrespective of soil and climatic conditions. More than 3,000 forests have been successfully created worldwide using this methodology by people like Shubhendu. These forests are upto 30 times more dense compared to conventional plantations. It is 30 times better in dust and noise reduction. It is also 30 times better in carbon-dioxide absorption as compared to monoculture plantations. Miyawaki technique forests are self-sustaining, completely maintenance-free, chemical fertiliser free forests that support local biodiversity.
What drives Afforestt?
Afforestt works with the mission to bring back native forests to life. It does so by creating and restoring them. Afforestt collaborates with SayTrees, a tree planting group and is funded by Germany’s Mercedes-Benz as it’s CSR program. Shubhendu, his team and his startup has won many awards and recognition for the green initiatives. The organization functions from Bangalore and New Delhi.
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