Photos of our Project - 1

             

Native Trees

                                                    

                      Native plant is a term to describe plants endemic (indigenous) or naturalized to a given area in geologic time.This includes plants that have developed, occur naturally, or existed for many years in an area.Native plants form a part of a cooperative environment, or plant community, where several species or environments have developed to support them. This could be a case where a plant exists because a certain animal pollinates the plant and that animal exists because it relies on the pollen as a source of food. Some native plants rely on natural conditions, such as occasional wildfires, to release their seeds or to provide a fertile environment where their seedlings can become established.

                             Such native trees are found in various places on the hills of Pune. They are mainly found in plenty on Hanuman Tekdi near Symbiosis College and on the Taljai hill in Sahakarnagar. The examples of such trees are:-

1. Dongari Amla (Phyllanthus Embelica)
2. Peepal (Ficus Religeosa)
3. Neem (Azardirachta Indica)
4. Karanj (Fongamia Clabra) They have the most survival rate on these hills.
5. Wad (Ficus Bengalenis)                                                                                                                                                                                              Such native trees are decreasing day by day due to plantation of other varieties of trees as they grow faster and are much profitable.  

Native Trees on Hills of Pune

Native Trees on Hills of Pune

                                The trees! The inseparable part of the bio-logical cycle are getting depleted nowadays. The native trees of the region also prove to form an important part of the nature. 

                             Pune city is well known from historical times as it is surrounded by hills like Parvati, Hanuman Tekdi, Vetal Tekdi, Ram Tekdi, Taljai, etc. These trees shelter many indigenous plant species of medical as well as economical importance. People nowadays cut our native trees for planting the foriegn varieties. The history goes like- The Britishers, when came to India; introduced various plants of foreign varieties on commercial basis for profit margin. Thus, plantation of these varieties grew and hence making the number of native trees to reduce. Now, these hills are under threat due to biotic pressure, encroachment over hill slopes, construction work, dumping of debris, cutting of trees, over-grazing, etc. Forest fire also proves to be a great threat to the environment. 

                             Hence to help to reduce this problem of depletion of native trees on hills in Pune, we, the students of D.E.S Secondary School, have taken an initiative to try to do our bit in saving the native trees of Pune.