In an effort to improve Mumbai’s air quality and forest situation around the city, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has undertaken the project to develop 14 new urban Miyawaki-style forests across Mumbai.

Conceptualised by Japanese botanist - Akira Miyawaki, Miyawaki is a technique of plantation, developed to restore indigenous ecosystems whereby native trees are densely planted within small patches. With sapling plantation to be completed in the next eight days, the forests are predicted to be ready before Diwali, this year.

As per officials, the drive was inaugurated on August 28 in Chembur, where one of the 14 forests will come up. Besides undertaking the plantation drive, BMC is also planning to carve out a pathway within the forest and place a few benches for people to rest amid nature. 

Moreover, Mumbai’s first-ever Miyawaki forest had been assembled by BMC at Chembur’s Bhakti Park. And the biggest Miyawaki plantation drive was carried out at Chandivali’s Nahar Amrut Shakti Udyan, where over 41,000 saplings were planted over 13 acres.