A Native Forest Initiative by Honeybees and Soil Care Foundation, India
Project Location: Malewadi Farm, Maharashtra
Project Area: 1000 square feet
Proposed Plantation: Next Monsoon 2027
Planting Density: Approximately 350 native plants
Spacing: 3 × 1 feet
🌱 A New Initiative Begins at Malewadi Farm
Under Honeybees and Soil Care Foundation, India, we are planning our first field-level ecological initiative at Malewadi Farm during the coming monsoon.
The project, “One 1000 square feet for Honeybee-Loving Dense Forest,” is designed around a simple idea:
Create a small, dense, diverse native forest that supports honeybees throughout the year while simultaneously building healthy soil.
Instead of establishing a conventional plantation with widely spaced trees, this project will experiment with a high-density, multi-species native forest model on just one guntha of land.
Approximately 350 locally suitable Indian/native trees and shrubs will be planted at approximately 3 × 1 ft spacing.
🐝 Forest for Honeybees
Honeybees require much more than a few flowering trees.
They need a succession of flowers providing:
🌼 Nectar
🌸 Pollen
🌳 Different flowering seasons
🌿 Different plant layers
🐝 Habitat and biodiversity
The proposed forest will therefore use multiple native tree and shrub species with different flowering periods.
The objective is to create overlapping flowering periods from:
January → February → March → April → May → June → July → August → September → October → November → December
The project will particularly focus on strengthening the October–December forage period, which can be relatively important for maintaining forage availability after the monsoon.
🌳 Why Dense Forest?
The concept is inspired by dense native-forest establishment rather than conventional orchard planting.
At 3 × 1 feet, approximately 363 theoretical planting positions are possible in one guntha of 1,089 sq ft.
For practical implementation, the project will target approximately 350 plants, allowing some space for boundaries, access and plantation design.
The initial high density will encourage:
Rapid ground coverage
Multiple vegetation layers
Competition-driven growth
Leaf-litter accumulation
Microclimate development
Soil biological activity
Greater plant diversity in a very small area
The larger trees will eventually require selective thinning/transplanting, while suitable shrubs and smaller forest species can remain as the permanent understorey.
🌸 A Forest Designed Around Flowering
The plantation will not be based simply on the number of species.
The key principle is:
“Different species, different flowering periods.”
The forest will combine species such as:
कडुनिंब • करंज • पळस • मोह • अर्जुन • जांभूळ • धावडा • सालई • कुसुम • चारोळी • बेहडा • हिरडा • तेंदू • शिवण • शिरीष • अंजन • खैर • बीजा • बेल • भोकर • बोर • करवंद • निर्गुडी • अडुळसा • धायटी and other locally suitable native species.
The final species composition will be refined according to local availability, survival potential, ecological suitability and flowering behaviour at Malewadi Farm.
♻️ From Forest to Soil
An important part of this project goes beyond honeybees.
The space between the densely planted forest plants will be used for developing natural vermicompost and organic matter management.
Fallen leaves, naturally generated biomass and suitable farm organic material can be incorporated into the soil-management system.
This creates a circular concept:
🌳 Forest
↓
🍂 Leaf litter & biomass
↓
🪱 Vermicomposting / decomposition
↓
🌱 Organic soil enrichment
↓
🌳 Healthier forest
Instead of treating fallen leaves and biomass as waste, the project aims to return organic matter to the soil.
🪱 The Soil–Bee Connection
Healthy honeybee habitat cannot be considered separately from healthy soil.
A diverse forest produces:
Flowers → Bees → Pollination → Seeds → New plants → Biomass → Organic matter → Soil life → Healthy plants → More flowers
This creates a small ecological cycle within just one guntha.
The project therefore brings together two of the Foundation's important areas of interest:
🐝 Honeybee conservation
🌱 Soil care
🌿 Local Plants, Local Ecology
The project will prioritize locally suitable native/Indian forest species rather than creating a collection of ornamental flowering plants.
The intention is to establish a forest ecosystem that is:
Native-oriented
Biodiverse
Bee-friendly
Soil-friendly
Low-input
Suitable for local climatic conditions
Capable of developing into a long-term ecological asset
Plant selection will also consider the needs of both Apis cerana and Apis mellifera.
📅 Proposed Project Timeline
🌧️ Coming Monsoon
Site preparation + plantation of approximately 350 plants
🌱 Year 1
Establishment, survival monitoring and weed management.
🌿 Year 2–3
Forest development, flowering observations and natural biomass accumulation.
🐝 Subsequent years
Monitoring of:
Honeybee visitation
Flowering periods
Nectar/pollen availability
Plant survival
Soil improvement
Biodiversity
Natural regeneration
The project can eventually become a demonstration site for farmers, beekeepers, students and rural communities.
📊 One Guntha. One Experiment. A Larger Vision.
This is only one guntha.
But the idea is much larger.
If a small piece of land can demonstrate that native vegetation, honeybees, soil organisms and organic biomass can be managed together, the model can potentially be adapted to:
Farms
Farm boundaries
Schools
Colleges
Community land
Rural institutions
FPOs
Beekeeping clusters
The objective is not simply to plant trees.
The objective is to create a living ecosystem.
🐝 Our Vision
Honeybees and Soil Care Foundation, India envisions a future where agriculture and ecology are not treated as separate systems.
Through the One Guntha for Honeybee-Loving Dense Forest Project, we are taking a small first step toward demonstrating how:
Native Forest + Flowers + Honeybees + Soil Life + Organic Biomass
can work together.
🌱 One Guntha Today. A Forest Movement Tomorrow.
Project: One Guntha for Honeybee-Loving Dense Forest
Location: Malewadi Farm
Area: 1 Guntha
Planting: ~350 native/local forest trees & shrubs
Spacing: 3 × 1 feet
Plantation: Coming Monsoon
🐝 More Native Plants.
🌸 More Flowers.
🐝 More Bees.
🌱 Healthier Soil.
🌳 More Life.
An initiative of
Honeybees and Soil Care Foundation, India
Mr. Rishikesh H. Autade,
Director,
Honeybees and Soil Care Foundation, India
[Legal Status: Section 8 Company / Registered Foundation]
TAN: PNEH17639G, PAN: AAICH9521J
Registered Office: Indiranagar, Shrirampur, Maharashtra, India.
Email: honeybfoundation@gmail.com
Mob: 9960553407
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