Degraded and fragmented forests have handicapped evolution's capacity to respond to climate change. While ongoing public sector plantations of a few dozen tree species are
helpful to climate change, this practice leaves life's evolution kit
at a deficit.
Our expertise is in the conservation of increasingly uncommon, rare and
endangered (RET) flora
of the Deccan Plateau and Eastern Ghats with a focus on woody species (trees & shrubs) and the faunal relationships they sustain. Our goal is to become
an exemplary model of ecosystem restoration in India
by reviving if not re‑building the essential, multifaceted relationships that replicate a 'wild' terrain.
More than a lakh woody plants, complementary to native fauna, serve as a refuge encompassing over a thousand species (established and in progress) across a few hundred genera. There is much more to do.
The DNA is a safe place for many species of Deccan
fauna. Year by year, we can observe the
robust rebound of an ecosystem on the mend. We also exhibit dry flora of other arid zones from
around the world in our botanic gardens and arboretum.
An extensive collection of (sub)tropical dryland flora, both planted & undisturbed, is distributed across the DNA's 400 acres. What
was once eroded pasture and wasteland is giving rise to a semi‑arid jungle ecosystem. See:
DNA on Google Earth