Thanks Srikant ji for sharing the interesting and useful info on Tara tree. Can we see this tree in any part of Southern India.
On Dec 5, 2:05 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 Ingalhalikar12 Varshanand > SocietyAnandnagar Sinhagad RoadPune 411 051.www.idsahyadri.comTel91 20 2435 > 0765.Fax 91 20 2438 9190. > > Tara_Flowers.jpg > 199KViewDownload > > Tara_Pods.jpg > 403KViewDownload > > Tara_tree.jpg > 614KViewDownload
