Thanks Shrikant Ji for sharing this interesting information and the photographs. Great effort by Peru....
Regards Prashant On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 2:35 PM, Shrikant Ingalhalikar <[email protected]>wrote: > *The fog harvester tree* > > A few years back, on the occasion of World Environment Day Alan Garcia, > the president of Peru announced (to fight the global climate change) a > national reforestation campaign to plant 180 million trees in Peru. To > promote this campaign, the agricultural ministry of Peru announced a novel > event of breaking the world record of tree-planting on the World > Environment Day itself. The appeal encouraged volunteers from segments like > students, army, police and citizens to participate in this mega event. > > In Tuman district on the north coast of Peru, thousands of pits were made > in the degraded area. Crates of tree-saplings were kept ready near the > pits. The event was flagged off at 10.15 am on June 5, 2010 and 8,000 > participants took up the race of tree-planting simultaneously. The spirited > teams broke the previous record of planting 26,422 trees in an hour set up > by Ireland in 2009. Peruvians finished with 27,166 trees and in just 5 > minutes and 20 seconds. Interestingly other previous records were in Mexico > (242 trees/min.) in 2008 and in India (176 trees/min.) in 2005. This is how > people of Peru triumphed against the global climate change, what an effort! > The jubilant plantation will serve as an education center for students and > industries.****** > > The tree species used for this record plantation was the Tara tree > (*Caesalpinia > spinosa*), the fond native of Peru. It is a small deciduous tree with > yellow, attractive looking fragrant flowers. It does not have spines as the > name suggests. The pods and the seeds are also colourful. Tara tree grows > in the valleys of Andes. Surprisingly forest surrounding Pune has about 50 > Tara trees.**** > > Lima district in Peru is in the high mountains yet is devoid of water. > It receives barely 1.5 cm of rain annually. The Andean glaciers which used > to be the perennial source of water for Lima are drying out fast. The hardy > residents of Lima traditionally know of an innovative source of little > water to quench their thirst. A lot of fog rolls up the mountains in Lima > from the South Pacific Ocean year round. The Tara tree of Peru not only > survives in the arid habitats of Lima but is known to absorb water from the > fog. Droplets of water are formed on the Tara leaves and the water drips > down to the ground. In some fog harvesting farms large funnels are placed > below Tara trees to replenish the ground water. Amazingly it provides a > source of drinking water in the periods of scarcity. The fog harvesting > forests of Tara trees can suffice the water requirements of the denizens of > Lima in future. Well, fog harvesting is only the most vital use of Tara > trees. They have several economic uses. An extract produced from the pods > of Tara is known as ‘Tara Powder’. It is used in leather tanning, food > products, medicines, breweries and cosmetics. > > ID credit to Dr. Vijaysankar Raman. > > Shrikant Ingalhalikar > 12 Varshanand Society > Anandnagar Sinhagad Road > Pune 411 051. www.idsahyadri.com > Tel 91 20 2435 0765. > Fax 91 20 2438 9190. > > > <http://sigads.rediff.com/RealMedia/ads/click_nx.ads/www.rediffmail.com/signatureline.htm@Middle?> > Follow *Rediff Deal ho > jaye!<http://track.rediff.com/click?url=___http://dealhojaye.rediff.com?sc_cid=rediffmailsignature___&cmp=signature&lnk=rediffmailsignature&newservice=deals> > * to get exciting offers in your city everyday.
