Orissa goes green

Times of India, July 8, 2009

BHUBANESWAR/BERHAMPUR: The state has finally realized the importance of planting trees and growing need for afforestation. A massive plantation
drive was launched on Tuesday and 25 lakh saplings were planted to make the surroundings greener.

The drive was organized in 205 places across the state and different people from all strata of society including schoolchildren, college students and government officials. This year the target is to plant saplings in one lakh hectares of land.

Speaking on a Bana Mohatsav festival at CRP Government School here, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said, "The state also aims to plant around five crore saplings of various varieties including medicinal plants in 2009-10. Students not only to plant trees but also keep them alive. I plan to visit the school next year to see how many of the saplings have really survived."

Different kinds of plantation drives have been planned including industrial planting, bald-in planting, heritage planting, planting at hotspots like Titilagarh and Talcher, coastal and mangrove planting to increase the green cover in the state. In 2008, 20 lakh saplings were planted on the same day.

"We have grown the saplings in different nurseries across the state. They include bamboo, medicinal plants and huge shadow giving plants. Of the total one lakh hectares area, block plantation will be carried out in 20,000 hectares, rehabilitation of degraded trees will be done in 72,000 hectares and bamboo seedlings will be planted in about 27,000 hectares," said principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) S C Mohanty.

The state government's plan assumed significance, when temperature by day began hovering around 40-45 degree Celsius to prolong the summer of 2009.

Environmentalists blamed deforestation as the main reason for drastic climatic changes in the state.

Claiming the area of plantation in the state is an upward trend in the last three years, the PCCF said while 35,278 hectares were covered in 2006-07, the number went up to 62,614 hectares in 2007-08 and 98,738 hectares in 2008-09.

This year medicinal trees like Ashoka and Dasamula will be planted in 110 hectares and 263 hectares respectively.

While the bamboo plantation will be made in 2,700 hectares, the high value tree plantations like teak and other species will be made in 4,000 hectares, mainly in Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput (KBK) region.

Similarly 295 hectares will be covered over industrial belts in Jharsuguda area.