Former tea plantations in India restored to native forest

(19 Nov 2024)
INDIA COP 29 TEA TO FOREST
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
LENGTH: 8:41
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nilgiris district, India - 27 September 2024
1. Various aerials of restoration site, surrounded by tea estates ++MUTE++
2. Various of restoration workers chopping grasses
3. Various of restoration workers laying chopped grass on a native tree sapling to preserve soil moisture
4. Various of restoration workers watering native tree saplings
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nilgiris district, India - 25 September 2024
5. Various of restoration practitioner Godwin Vasanth Bosco walking in a forest that he restored years ago from a tea plantation
6. Various of tea plantation
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nilgiris district, India - 27 September 2024
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Godwin Vasanth Bosco, naturalist and restoration practitioner:
“Over 70% of the landscape is now converted into plantations and commercial plantations, managed plantations, and less than 10% of the native ecology remains.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nilgiris district, India - 25 September 2024
8. Aerial of restoration site where Bosco is planting native grass, surrounded by large tea estates ++MUTE++
9. Various of Bosco on site, taking pictures of restored native grass, walking up a hill
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Godwin Vasanth Bosco, naturalist and restoration practitioner:
“Around here, it's mostly tea and the grasslands are locally extinct here. So we are trying to create grassland patches and small patches in different private sites over here. And the idea is that people can see this as a model. And once we establish this in small patches, the idea is that we can create connected corridors.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nilgiris district, India - 26 September 2024
11. Mountains in preserved native forest
12. Various of wildlife, monkeys and Indian giant squirrel
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nilgiris district, India - 27 September 2024
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Godwin Vasanth Bosco, naturalist and restoration practitioner:
“These plant communities have this incredible capacity to support life, whether it's the way they grow or the way they build rich soils. And, similarly, one very important aspect is how much water they conserve and release downstream.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nilgiris district, India - 26 September 2024
14. Small waterfall flowing in preserved forest
15. Close of stream
16. Various of local resident filling water bucket from stream and leaving
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Gokul Halan, Nilgiris-based water expert:
“It is important to restore the tea into biodiverse regions. Especially today, because we are talking a lot about climate change. The impacts of climate change in the region is also a lot. A lot of the tea estates as well as other regions in Nilgris are considered highly vulnerable to landslides.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nilgiris district, India - 25 September 2024
18. Wide of land carved out to plant blueberries
19. Close of loose soil on tea plantation
20. Houses built on mountain slope with higher risk of landslides
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nilgiris district, India - 26 September 2024
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Gokul Halan, Nilgiris-based water expert:
“Especially if you look at tea plantations in the Nilgris, a lot of environmentalists call them green desert for a particular reason, that it does not allow for native vegetation to grow in the region as well as it's monocrop, it is one kind of plant that grows across multiple areas and it does have a negative impact on the region.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nilgiris district, India - 25 September 2024
ASSOCIATED PRESS
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