The woodland at Doongerwadi is a natural heritage that needs to be protected
Parinaz Gandhi
Everything green doesn’t play a role in the ecological system,” asserted Dr Rashneh Pardiwala standing under a closed canopy of gliricidia trees that keep shooting up on the Doongerwadi property in Bombay. Founder and director of the Centre for Environmental Research and Education (CERE), Pardiwala explained that once gliricidia (also known as Australian Acacia with compound leaves resembling ferns is suited to a dry climate as it prevents desertification) invade a site, they rapidly proliferate and a healthy, diverse forest of native tree varities can be ruined into a monoculture of one exotic species. Keen to see "Doongerwadi survive as......