PRAYAGRAJ: The Ganga Task Force (GTF), the Territorial Army team of 137 Composite Ecological Task Force (CETF) Bn (TA) 39 Gorkha Rifles, entrusted with the mandate of conserving the Ganga basin is also working to rejuvenate the lost forest cover through afforestation and thereby minimising soil erosion. The team has been working for afforestation by using ‘seed balls’ — soil along with equal amount of clay, humus and ash in the shape of a ball and having two-four seeds of some indigenous trees at the centre. The seed ball is around two inches in diameter.
Since its raising on May 2019, the task force has manufactured over seven lakhs seed balls out of which 6.4 lakhs have already been scattered on the fallow land. The seed balls are distributed among pilgrims, farmers, students, organisations, army units etc. in Prayagraj, Kanpur and Varanasi.
Colonel Amit Pande, in-charge GTF said, “We have four machines at our unit, each having the capacity of manufacturing 10,000 seed balls per day. About 2-4 seeds of indigenous trees are kept in the mix of soil, clay, humus and ash and given shape of a ball, which is then dried.”
“Each seed ball has a survival period of 11 months. As soon as it gets get some moisture, the seed starts sprouting, drawing nutrition from the enclosing mix of soil, humus and ash and germinates into a plant,” said Col Pande, who has been decorated with Nau Sena medal. The unit has used seeds of 26 different indigenous species, including jackfruit, guava, bel, arjun, aaonla, blackberry, in these balls to ensure a variety of flora.