Ecorestoration of Banni Grassland - Global Restoration Network

3. RESTORATION APPROACH
As a pilot measure, the restoration of Banni
grassland was initially (for the year 1996) aimed to
cover a total area of 500 ha at 5 different sites of
Banni. During the successive years it was planned
to gradually extend it into several other areas of
Banni. However, due to administrative and local
issues in acquiring the land, the restoration
programme could be successfully launched only at
two sites; one located at 11 km before Bhirandiyara
and the other at Dhordo village covering an area of
15 and 200 ha respectively. The requirements and
implementation activities carried out to improve the
status of the restoration sites and to develop the
grass and indigenous tree cover in the area are
explained in the successive paragraphs (Figure 2).
However, it is important to state here that the natural
recovery following degradation is a slow process;
it depends on time and space, and is influenced
by geographical and climatic factors and
ecological conditions of the site. Therefore, a successful
restoration programme attempts to accelerate
the natural recovery process artificially in order
to achieve the goal in a short time. In order to rebegin
performing the productive and protective
functions, a degraded land needs human assistance,
i.e. protection, pre-treatment for habitat rectification
such as; slope modification, nutrient and organic
matter amendments, etc. (Singh and Jha,
1992).
3.1 Protection
The Banni grassland could be improved only in the
good rainfall years. Since good years are generally
followed by droughts in a cycle of every 3 years or
sometimes alternative years, the best method to
improve grasslands are based on the fact that an
overgrazed land is protected from frequent grazing,
the productive perennials, quality grasses replace
the undesirable annual grasses. Protection from
grazing allows the perennials to produce large
quantities of seeds. Thus depending on the
condition of a site, a continuous protection from
grazing develops the ground layer principally made
Ecorestoration of
Banni Grassland
up of perennial grasses (Kanodia and Patil, 1983).
The same improvement can be achieved but at a
slower rate, with either deferred or rotational grazing
system where the grasses are protected up to seed
dispersal or as under pasture management systems.
Therefore, the first step in any restoration strategy,
of course, is to protect the disturbed habitats and
communities from being further wasted, and from
losing the extant genes (Singh and Jha, 1993).
As a measure to protect the Bhirandiyara restoration
site from livestock grazing, a trench fence consisting
of 1.2 m width and 1 m deep was laid along
the periphery of the site. There are views that trench
fencing is not a foolproof method to protect the
grass plot from cattle. However, its effectiveness in
the protection, depends upon the width and depth
of the trench. Therefore, a barbed wire fence around
the site was also raised to ensure double protection
from any kind of grazing. It has been reported
that the protection of grasslands with the help of
barbed wire fencing increased forage production
of better grasses (Bhimaya et. al. 1967, Ahuja 1977,
Kanodia et. al. 1978). At Dhordo restoration site,
due to the coverage of vast area of 200 ha, it was
decided to have only trench fencing. But, to ensure
full protection from cattle, a 2 m wide and 1.5 m
deep trench was dug along the periphery of the
plot, which covers a length of 6000 m. The mud
removed from the trench was also used to raise a
1.5 m high mud wall on the inner fringe of the trench.
This ensured a complete protection from cattle. This
method of fencing though less expensive as compared
to barbed wire fencing, requires maintenance
every year. This trench, apart from its cattle proof
function, also helps in harvesting the rainwater due
to its vast length, depth and width.
3.2 Removal of Prosopis juliflora and Other Weeds
Prosopis juliflora infestation is believed to be the
major cause in reducing the productivity of
pastureland and hinder the growth of grasses.
Unwanted thorny bushes need to be removed out
mechanically or manually to eliminate the
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