Inside Project Forest Canopy
How we planted 48,000 native trees across 1,294 hectares of the Ganga corridor — and what we measured before we called it a success.
Project Forest Canopy is a five-year native-species afforestation effort along the Ganga corridor. Below is the unvarnished story of how it actually came together — including the parts we'd do differently.
The site selection took longer than the planting
Before a single sapling went into the ground, we spent eleven months on:
- Tenure mapping with revenue officials and gram sabhas
- Hydrology assessment for monsoon water-tabling
- Species selection with the State Forest Department
- Community consent in twenty-three villages
If you skip any of these, the trees might survive — but the project won't.
Native-first, always
We planted 48 species chosen from the indigenous flora of the Indo-Gangetic plain — including Mahua, Arjun, Sheesham and Neem. No invasive eucalyptus. No fast-growth monocultures.
The trade-off: lower above-ground biomass in years 1–3, much higher ecosystem services in years 5+.
What we measured
- Above-ground biomass via quarterly permanent-plot sampling
- Below-ground carbon estimates with India-specific allometric equations
- Bird and pollinator counts via citizen science partnerships
- Survival rates per village, per species, per cohort
We published every number — including the ones we didn't love.
What we'd do differently
The first two cohorts had a 71% survival rate. Acceptable, but below our target. The fix turned out to be unglamorous: better fencing, longer water-rationing windows, and paying the local vanrakshaks a slightly higher monthly stipend. Cohort three's survival rate is 89%.
Sometimes the answer is just to listen to the people who live on the land.
