She started this project after having a training in India under a British Council sponsorship. In fact, she represented Sri Lanka. This project is collaborated with the International Climate Change Championship Pogramme. The objective of her project is to enrich the river banks and stream banks by planting 200 bamboo seedlings. It is expected that those plants will significantly contribute to the aesthetic value and the biodiversity of the area.
Savindi has selected bamboo for this project due to several reasons. There is a great advantage of bamboo as it has an enormous growth rate. It sequesters 4 times more carbon dioxide than hardwood and releases 35% more oxygen than equivalent stands of trees. Further, bamboo does not require any fertilisers.
The net-like root system of bamboo effectively protects watersheds by stitching the soil together along fragile riverbanks, deforested areas, and in places prone to earthquakes and mud slides. A wide-spreading root system, uniquely shaped leaves, and dense litter on the forest floor also greatly reduces rain runoff, preventing massive soil erosion and effectively keeping twice as much water, in the watershed.
Savindi believes that planting bamboo trees is an effective implementation to balance the carbon footprint because it sequesters 4 times more carbon dioxide than hardwood. She hopes to further use her knowledge and experience gathered by following the subject "Forestry and Environmental Science" at the degree level to carry out this project successfully.
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