In India, we plant in the Pench Tiger Reserve, Ramtek Taluka, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India, where trees form a very important part of the tiger’s natural habitat and the economy of the area. Tigers are a conservation-dependent species, whose survival requires a sufficient quantity of large prey and vast swaths of contiguous forest habitat. The major ecological challenges here such as wildlife loss due to developmental activities, human-animal conflict, and resource exploitation, make replenishment of the tree cover in this region an indispensable part of the conservation process. Forest-based livelihoods form a major part of the employment opportunities available. Due to the dearth of other sources of income and a decline in forest cover, poverty is rampant in the area.

Apart from providing a good source of income to the people of the region, carefully selected species (Custard Apple, Drumstick, Kashid, Lemon, Pomegranate, Amla, Tamarind, Karanj, Neem, Ber, Babool, and Bamboo) will be a source of indigenous medicine to the tribal communities who have poor access to good healthcare facilities, while also acting as gene banks and carbon sequestration units.

Social Impact
Tree plantation in the restoration of the Kanha-Pench corridor, promotion of nature-based tourism, and integration of the local communities in the process for it to impact tiger conservation efforts are very important. The project has been carried out on public lands, wherein the community will be able to utilize the NTFPs like fruits, tendu leaves, twigs, and fodder. The beneficiaries are mostly women, who say the project has empowered them as well as provided them with the option to work in the vicinity of their homes. The project involves 70 households, creating 3000 workdays for the labor force, of which 70% are women.

The tribal population stands at almost 96% of the total population where the dependency on the forest-based industry is high. The project will discourage the villagers from participating in illegal activities, like poaching, by providing them with a steady source of income from the forest produce. It will deter wild animals such as wild boars, leopards, and other wild cats from straying into human settlements and destroying personal property and croplands by developing a dense buffer zone. Upon maturity, each tree can absorb approximately 20kg of CO2 per year, which is considered globally a conservative estimate for the sequestration potential of trees.