The tree banking initiative of the Meenangadi panchayat in Wayanad district is gaining momentum thanks to the collective efforts of farmers who are on a crusade to make their village carbon neutral. 

The initiative proposed by the NGO Thanal was received with great enthusiasm as farmers are entitled to a financial incentive. The project involves geo-tagging trees and submitting land tax receipts and Adhaar card numbers at the panchayat office. The farmer will then get  Rs 50 annually for each tree, as long as s/he does not cut them down.

Dr. TM Thomas Issac, a former finance minister for Kerala, came up with the concept. Thanal contributed to the development of a model that, after doing a thorough study, determined that Wayanad had excess emissions of 11,412 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

It was determined to plant trees based on their importance of carbon sequestration, medicinal and spiritual purposes, economic value, growth rate, and canopy area, after discussions with forest officials and agricultural specialists.

Speaking to 101Reporters, Thanal's executive director Jayakumar C said that climate change was the main challenge they were facing. Tree banking turned out to be a successful initiative in their effort to design a project that is carbon neutral. Under this project, an estimate of the amount of carbon and the number of trees required to be planted to offset it was taken.

The next step was how to inspire the farmers to maintain the trees and refrain from felling them after a few decades.  As a result, the concept of rewarding farmers for caring for the trees was developed. The farmers were given incentives annually and it became a win-win situation for them.