Then Manoj and the village leaders walked to a forest/jungle they had planted about 4 years earlier. It was almost completely taken over by that same alien invasive vine. Manoj was both upset, and excited. Finally he found a place where he had the support and relationship with the community to fight this plant. Together with the village leaders they discussed a plan to pull up all the vines before they had a chance to seed, burn them, and continue to do that for 4-5 years until it was gone from the forest. This was at least 20 acres of forest. How would they organize the manpower? Time will tell.
There was a beautiful fern grove, which a tractor had driven through and trampled. It seemed they knew who had done it, though didn’t realize that was a bad thing. So much we encountered was a cross between inspiring and heartbreaking.