Miyawaki Method

Environmentalist Vikrant Tongad, founder of non-profit SAFE, turned a four-acre dumpsite in Greater Noida into a thriving green zone with 3,000 native trees. Here’s how he and the community prevented another Ghazipur-like landfill disaster.

Cities worldwide are tackling pollution and heat with fast-growing pocket forests. Can India adopt this eco-friendly solution for greener, cooler urban spaces?

Ahead of Maha Kumbh 2025, IAS officer Chandra Mohan Garg transformed Prayagraj's dump yards into lush forests using the Miyawaki technique to improve air quality.

Moved by the cries of displaced birds, RK Nair bought a piece of land in 2012 and planted 1,500 trees using the Miyawaki method. Since then, he has been creating thriving urban forests to restore ecological balance in Indian cities.

Using a method invented by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, Kukma village in Gujarat has built a flourishing forest using 10,000 litres of wastewater, which is purified daily to water thousands of plants.

During his time at the AIR, he recorded countless interviews with scientists such as Dr M S Swaminathan, bureaucrats, and everyday food-growers. He has interviewed at least two guests per episode for every single day for the past 28 years.

This garden is inspired not just by Japanese farmer and philosopher Masanobu Fukuoka’s method of natural farming but also puts to use principles of agroecology, permaculture strategies, and the Miyawaki Method of afforestation.

Once an arid rock-strewn patch, the land now teems with lush green creepers, shrubs and trees - all thanks to a 53-year-old man who believed that forests could grow in cities too!

"Nestled amid small hills and guarded by tall eucalyptus trees, this place has today transformed into a mini Ooty of sorts!", says Bengaluru's 'Lake Ambassador'. #WaterActionDecade #LakeReviversCollective

The Central Rail-side Warehouse Company (CRWC) premises at Jogeshwari East will soon see, as Green Yatra claims, Mumbai’s first Miyawaki urban dense forest.