‘It is necessary to have combination of shrubs, flowers, timber and canopy in building forest’: Radhakrishna K. Nair

‘It is necessary to have combination of shrubs, flowers, timber and canopy in building forest’: Radhakrishna K. Nair

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, March 19, 2025: Expressing his opposition to the plain adoption of Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki’s system of planting, industrialist-turned-green activist Radhakrishna K. Nair said it is necessary to plant local saplings that include shrubs, flowers, timber and canopy in an area.  

Mr. Nari, 53, a native of Sullia taluk in Dakshina Kannada, is credited with developing 121 urban forest patches across the country, including the Smriti Vana in 470 acres of Bhujia Hills in Bhuj region of Gujarat. He said it is necessary to maintain the combination that creates biodiversity. 

 

 

“With my system of planting, which I call as Bharath dense forest, many barren land portions have turned green,” he said.

Speaking at the 20th ‘Press Club Guest of Honour’ programme organised by the Mangaluru Press Club on Tuesday, Mr. Nair referred to greening for developing Smriti Vana, which is in homage to 13,000 victims of the Gujarat earthquake. As many as 5.25 lakh saplings have been planted.

“There are 50 check dams in which more than 1,000 species of fish are found. More than 100 species of birds are noticed here. If you protect nature, nature has the capacity to recreate itself,” he said.

Mr. Nair said he took up greening in 2012 after noticing the cutting down of massive trees in Umargam in Gujarat, where he moved from Sullia and set up a garment export unit. So far, he has set up 121 dense urban forest patches and the 122nd forest patch is coming up in Pali in Rajasthan.

As many as 72 urban forest patches, including one in a chemical dumpyard, are in Mumbai. A dumping yard in Vijayawada has been turned green, he said.  

Citing the success of greening stretches along the coast in Maharashtra and Gujarat, Mr. Nair said greening alone is a solution to problem of sea erosion noticed in Mangaluru and other parts of Karnataka coastline.  

Born in Kasaragod in Kerala, Mr. Nair and his family settled in Jalsoor in Sullia taluk of Dakshina Kannada where they worked in fields. In remembrance of this occupation, Mr. Nair continues to sport ‘muttale’ (a cap made of arecanut leaf) on his head.

Mr. Nair went to Mumbai, after his failure in class 12, to work in a medical shop. He then joined a garment unit, which sent him to Umargam in Gujarat as its project manager. After working for a while, he opened his own unit Souparnika Exports and two other units, which are now handled by his son, wife, and daughter-in-law. “I am totally into greening now,” he said.