Planting, Regeneration, Aftercare and Maintenance - Afforestation, Reforestation and Forest Restoration in Arid and Semi-arid Tropics - page 118

Fig. 6.4 Close care is needed
until plants are established in
moving sands

situ. If cast in situ, relocation will most likely damage the blocks and the exercise of
casting them may have to be repeated, leading to higher costs in terms of labour and
material.
Plants should be protected as and when these are buried into sand or get exposed
in their root zone. If buried, the sand around the plant should be dug up, and some
mulch material should be kept in the leeward side. If a plant has been exposed, its
roots should be covered with sand, and then some mulch should kept on its windward
side. This will arrest more sand and pile it up near the plant, thus avoiding exposure
of plant roots. If, as a result of mulch, too much sand gets arrested, the plant may
get buried in sand. It is only through judicious choice that one can arrive at the right
amount of mulch to be placed around plants. The plants should be cared for thus at
least for 3 years. As the plantation establishes itself, the stabilisation effect will be
seen over the dune, and soil movements will be less and less aggressive (Fig. 6.4 ).
Large-scale relocation of sand masses can result in a situation where an entire
patch in a sand dune plantation, covering an area of 5-10 ha, may get filled with
sand, and all the plants in the area as well as the mulch lines may get buried. This
can create a blank in an otherwise well-afforested site. It is impossible to compete
with nature and dig up all the plants under such circumstances. Such areas should be
re-mulched with greater density of mulch-lines, preferably in a checkerboard pattern,
and then replanted in the next planting season.

6.16 Long-Term Maintenance

The planting year and the next year are the main formative years of a plantation.
All maintenance operations should be carried out meticulously during these 2 years.
However, maintenance operations of protection, repair of fence, and watch and ward
should continue for many more years, until the plantation is fully established.
Pruning and training of the branches or the stem of plants in certain species is an
important operation to be carried out in later years. Sunlight in the bright skies of the
arid tropics is copious and most plants will branch out low and will not grow with
a straight stem. Although in a majority of cases the afforestation programme aims