Project proposal

Submitted to:

Proposal Title: Aerial seeding project in

Gauribidanur Town, Chikballapur Dist.
Date: November 2020

NGO Name: SayTrees Environmental Trust

Contact Person: Nitin Nath Singh
Phone Number: 9910298215
Correspondence Address: #14, AJR Pride, 2nd Floor, 27th Main, Sector 1, HSR Layout, Bangalore-
560102

Project: Aerial seeding project in Gauribidanur Town, Chikballaur Dist.

Thematic Area: Afforestation

Proposed Location: Gauribidanur Town, Kolar Dist.

Organizational Profile
a. Organization Name
SayTrees Environmental Trust
(as per registration certificate)
b. Registered Address #14, AJR Pride, 2nd Floor,
(as per registration certificate) 27th Main, Sector 1, HSR Layout, Bangalore-560102

c. Correspondence Address Same as Registered Address

d. Website www.saytrees.org

Program Head, North

e. Contact person Nitin Nath Singh Designation
India
Alternate Mobile
f. Mobile Number +91 9910298215 +91 8076718720
Number
Alternate Email
g. Email Address nitin@saytrees.org durgesh@saytrees.org
address

Legal and Registration Status (Annexure A)

a. Date of Registration 03-05-2013
b. Registration Type Trust
c. PAN AAMTS8900M
d. TAN BLRS51368C
e. GST NA
Name of Account SayTrees Environmental Trust
Account Number 34803899434
f. Bank Details on NGO Letter Head
(Indian account only) State Bank of India, Hosur Road
Bank and Branch with Address
Branch, Bangalore - 560100
IFSC SBIN0010514

12A(A): DIT(E)BLR/12A/I-371/AAMTS8900M/ITO(E)-3/Vol 2013-2014

g. Tax Exemption Certificate 80G: DIT(E)BLR/80G/I-372/AAMTS8900M/ITO(E)-1/Vol 2013-2014

Any Other (example: 35AC)

Applicable / Not Applicable Applicable

i. Registration under FCRA 2010 Date of Registration 13-09-2017

Registration number 094421697

Date of Registration
j. Darpan (Niti Ayog) Registration
Registration number KA/2017/0160468

1
Organizational Background
SayTrees was launched in Bangalore in 2007, when our founder, Kapil Sharma, felt the need to conserve the green
cover of the city. Since then we have been planting tree saplings and creating forest patches in every possible
location and any possible geography. SayTrees believes that planting a sapling is just the beginning, the
maintenance demands maximum effort and influences the future of sapling. SayTrees is occupied in planting
during the entire monsoon and taking care of the saplings entire summer. We have always believed in and standby
advocating the right to community engagement. Hundreds of volunteers join us in our plantation drives. We have
been conducting of experiments in large proportions to yield better results every time we plant. We have tried the
Japanese method of tree planting, the Miyawaki method, in partnership with the IISC - Bangalore, to use drones
for large scale afforestation by aerial seeding. We have planted saplings in more than 25 lakes in Bangalore.
Observing the water scarcity, we decided to rejuvenate lakes in the city to prevent drying up in the near future.
Water, the very basic need for humans and Bangalore is encountering massive shortage in a very short span of
time. It’s very important to save the natural resources to keep the city alive and to maintain the ecological balance
between the flora and fauna.

Project Proposal
Project Identification Details

1 Project Title Aerial Seeding at Gauribidanur Town, Chikballapur Dist.

2 Thematic Pillar Afforestation
3 Proposed Location (City & Location) Gauribidanur Town, Kolar Taluk
4 Total Proposed area 3000 acre
5 Total seeds to be used 1,00,00,000 (One Crore)
Total Proposed Budget
6 INR 95,55,200.00
( Detailed budget attached in Annexure C )

Proposal Abstract

Gauribidanur is a historical town in Kolar district, now a part of Chikballapur district in the South Indian state of
Karnataka. According to a report submitted by the KIADB to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoE&F) in
2013, site for the development of Gowribidanur IA of phase I & II comprises of semi urban and rural environment.
The area earmarked for the proposed IA of phase I & II is about 724.38 acres of land. The then mentioned land was
barren with degraded shrub in most of the area, while some land was also covered by agricultural activity. Out of
the mentioned 724.38 acres of land sanctioned, a total of 37.74 acres of land is being spared as land for civic
amenities, park and buffer zone which is less than 10% of the total land area considered. As a part of the
SayTrees project, we are trying to rejuvenate, rebuild and reactivate the green cover in the considered
geography.
Background
Deforestation has occurred in the past for creating infrastructure, industries, mining, oil and gas exploration,
thermal power plants, etc. Annually, about 15 billion trees are cut down to make way for agriculture, mining,
logging and urban sprawl. This has accelerated global warming and has caused destruction of millions of species of
flora and fauna and a lot more have been pushed into the verge of extinction. This proposal aims to compensate
for this loss through a novel automated afforestation program using drones. Afforestation - the development of
new forest on a non-forest land, is necessary to combat the issues of global warming, soil erosion, pollution, and
the maintenance of biodiversity and ecological balance. Trees uses water and carbon-dioxide (CO 2) to convert it
into organic matter (wood) and oxygen. Thus, trees take up the role of natural air-purifiers and helps relieve the
environment of the toxic gases. This explains the necessity to create new forests to purify the environment,
maximize the carbon capture, and control soil erosion. In India, the total forest area was 40.48 million hectares in
1950 and then it was increased to 67.47-million-hectare forest area in 1980. And finally, 69-million-hectare area
was under forest had been reported in 2006. A massive 70.5% increase of area under cover forests had been seen
during 1950 to 2006 as a result of afforestation.

Overall Project Objective and Specific Objectives

The overall objective of the proposed project is to reduce emissions from deforestation, conservation &
enhancement of forest carbon stocks and sustainable forest management. These objectives can be achieved only
through afforestation and precision farming. For large scale afforestation, hand planting trees is slow and
expensive. To keep pace with the tractors and bulldozers clearing vast areas of land, we need an industrial-scale
solution. The project proposes an industrial – scale solution by using a drone that can plant up to 100,000 trees a
day. This technique allows to plant trees in areas that are difficult to access or otherwise unviable. It is estimated
that this method is about 10 times faster and only 20% of the cost of hand planting. It allows to plant in hard-to-
reach areas that have no roads or steep, inaccessible terrain
Specific project objectives include:
 Design and manufacture of application specific UAV
 Site identification and flight planning using the UAV
 UAV Flight and deployment of seed balls immersed in nutrient rich manure.
 Image processing – multiple flights are conducted over a period of time and time series analysis is done
to study the effectiveness of the campaign.

Proposed Strategy
SayTrees has the technical expertise from the relevant field and has the manpower to execute the project to
the fullest. The proposed strategy is as described further. The geography of the considered site id studied and
the suitable species of the tree varieties are carefully chosen by the experts. A UAV platform used in this study
is a custom-built fixed wing aircraft. The onboard flight control system is an arm based open source Pixhawk
autopilot. A 3D aerial survey will be conducted using drone photogrammetry. The drone flies at low altitude
and therefore capturing high quality images. Coverage by each flight in a Sub region is optimized and the type
of drone needed for the sub region is assigned. Focus of this work is on drone flights to take pictures of
vegetation.
Proposed Activities
The soaked seeds are loaded into the compartment attached to the UAV. In general, one flight can carry soaked
seeds weighing from a minimum of 5Kg to a maximum of 10Kg depending on the design parameter of the UAV.
So once the loaded seeds are dropped the UAV returns back to the home location and again the seeds are loaded
for the next flight. Flying at a height of 1 or 2 meters, the drones follow the generated seeding patterns, dropping
the soaked seeds down to the ground. The soaked seeds upon impact, allows the germinated seed a chance to
take root. After planting, the drones do low-level flights to assess the health of the sprouts and saplings. With its
advanced automatic aerial triangulation, purely on image content and unique optimization techniques,
Pix4Dmapper software enables any UAV or camera to become a professional mapping and surveying tool. The
spots where the seeds were dropped is Geo-Tagged with usage of the GPS connected camera that is fitted to the
drone. It would be easy to survey the land where the seeds were dropped on an interval of twice in a year.

Volunteer Engagement Plan

This project though does not involve volunteers in planting the sapling or watering, it will make the local
community more responsible in maintaining the patch of land where the seeds dropping was carried over and
ignites a sense of duty consciousness to maintain the same by avoiding the cutting down of planted trees and
by avoiding grazing on the seeded patch.

Sustainability plan
Post seed dropping, the site will be monitored regularly to ensure they are safeguarded by the local
community. We also try and increase the seed survival and hatching into saplings. Once we are assured that the
saplings have sustained the weather conditions, the seed dropping will continue for the rest of the monsoon
season to complete a total seed population of about 1 crore seeds across three to five months. Aerial seed
dropping has a survival rate of 10 to 15% which indicates out of the one crore seeds dropped, we have a
survival possibility of about 10 to 15 lack trees. This will be further monitored and the seed dropping will be
continued in the next season until we cover the entire land patch with green cover.

Risk mapping
The possible threats we are about to face include the following:
 Risk of the seeds being eaten by rodents and pests
 Dying of the seeds due to non-availability of proper nutrients and water
 Grazing by animals, and
Another probable natural phenomenon that cannot be possibly controlled by us.

Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (Clear Output, Process, Outcome and Impact Level Indicators)
After planting, the drones do low-level flights to assess the health of the sprouts and saplings. Pix4D is bundled
with a imagery solution named Pix4Dmapper that converts thousands of aerial and oblique images taken by
lightweight UAV, such as our DATA hawk and Q200 range of drones, into geo-referenced 2D Orth mosaics, 3D
surface models and point clouds. With its advanced automatic aerial triangulation based purely on image
content and unique optimization techniques, Pix4Dmapper software enables any UAV or camera to become a
professional mapping and surveying tool.
Time line: Time line would be fixed to achieve each mile stone. There would be many activities which will
happen simultaneously.
Internal audit of the progress: Fortnightly.
Outcome and impact indicators: Change in the landscape, recharge of borewells, frequency of community
water supply.
Human resource mapping (proposed team structure)
Team would comprise of the following:
 Project Manager
 Project Associate
 Subject matter expert
 Gardener to visit the site to monitor seed germination and further progress.

PROPOSED BUDGET FOR DELL AERIAL SEED DROPPING PROJECT

PROPOSED LOCATION - GAURIBIDANUR TOWN, CHIKKABALLUR DIST.
1st 2nd 3rd
Aerial seed dropping in
Year Year Year
Gauribidanur
Total
Sl Un Unit Projection Projection Projection
Budget Item Budget
No its Budget in INR in INR in INR
INR
A Recurring
Salaries - Program Manager (SayTrees)
A.1 + Project Co-Ordinator (IISc) + 2 68,000 2,448,000 816,000 816,000 816,000
Project Associate (IISc)
Equipment’s - Rededge M
A.2 2 2,564,000 2,564,000 1,564,000 800,000 200,000
Multispectral Camera + Airframe Parts
Consumables - Materials for airframe
A.3 - 650,000 650,000 300,000 200,000 150,000
construction
A.4 Productive Service 600,000 600,000 200,000 200,000 200,000
Contingency - Software upgrade and
A.5 400,000 400,000 200,000 100,000 100,000
license extension
Seed ball making (Includes seeds, clay,
A.6 400,000 400,000 200,000 100,000 100,000
manure etc.)
TOTAL
7,062,000 3,280,000 2,216,000 1,566,000
B Travel & Survey
Field survey and others (IISc
B.1 600,000 200,000 200,000 200,000
Team)
TOTAL 600,000 200,000 200,000 200,000
C Office Administration
Documentation, stationery, local
C.1 800,000 400,000 200,000 200,000
commute, audit, reporting, etc.
TOTAL 800,000 400,000 200,000 200,000
D Miscellaneous
D.1 Overhead costs at IISc @ 20% 1,093,200 539,600 322,800 230,800

TOTAL 1,093,200 539,600 322,800 230,800

BUDGET TOTALS
9,555,200 4,419,600 2,938,800 2,196,800
 PROPOSED TIMELINE FOR AERIAL SEED DROPPING PROJECT - ANNUAL
PROPOSED LOCATION - GAURIBIDANUR TOWN, CHIKKABALLUR DIST.
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Remarks
Task/
Months 4M 8M 12 M 16 M 20 M 24 M 28 M 32 M 36 M
Site identified for
seed dropping
Literature
Survey  and survey
completed by IISc
team
Experime
ntal Data     Until 20 months
Collection
Image Once every 4
Processing      months
Reporting
and Once every 4
document    months
ation