Now, steps have been initiated at the Government level to make the State green. As it is understood, the mission is to protect the land from disasters. Odisha is a land of disasters from the side of nature.
It is situated in the coast of Bay of Bengal. Hence, the oceanic disasters are always expected.
Besides nature’s fury, there are also man-made disasters. A number of industries have been coming up creating many social, economic and environmental problems. To beat off the crises, different types of industries with agricultural, horticultural farms are needed with modern technologies. The mineral based industries create a great harm.
The whole environment such as air, water and soil, which are life supporting ingredients, are polluted heavily. The industrial belts of Talcher –Angul, Baragarh, Rajgangpur, Keonjhar and Sunabeda have become carbon- cum- dust hubs due to injudicious action of man.
Again, to provide job to the idle human resources of the State we need further industrialisation. Such things again aggravate the environmental situation. In industrial areas, airborne and waterborne diseases are spreading. Hence, the carbon and dust assimilators are required to tackle the problems.
Now the Government of India is giving much importance on “Swachha Bharat”. The Swatchha Bharat means the management of health and sanitation. Hence, our “My Green Odisha” pogramme can be a programme to make the life support systems clean and pollution free. The steps to be taken for achieving “My Green Odisha” objectives are as follows Beat wise planning: The recorded forest areas of the State is 58,137 sqkm out of which very dense forest cover is 589.0 sqkm, moderately dense forest cover is 27,656 sqkm and open forest cover is 20,180 sqkm. The total forest cover of the State is 37.34 per cent of the total land area, which is 1,55,707 sqkm. So we have a vast land in our disposal for carrying out afforestation programme. We must assess the forest cover beat wise to prepare management plans for creation of new forest. The forest beat is the smallest unit of administration.
There are around 7,000 forest beats in the State and each forest beat covers 40 to 45 sqkm area. So, the crop assessment and study of density of crops should be made beat-wise. The conservation measures of forests, fire protection measure, afforestation and reforestation works should be carried out beat wise.
The people should be organised forest beat wise to participate in the all kinds of development works of forest activities. The wildlife management and development pastures for wild creatures including conservation of bio-diversities should also be done beat wise. The tourism management of tibal lands can better be done beat -wise. The corruption of public funds can be better avoided and the work efficiency of forest employees can also be expected beat basis.
All communal lands such as Gochar, burial grounds, waste (Anabadi), bunds and embankments of villages ponds and wetlands should come under afforestation programme. Plantations of fodder trees, trees required for agricultural implements should also be done. City, town, village road side avenue plantations with yards of temples and public institutions should be brought under the programme.
City plantations are most important, which need wide crown coverage to redress radiation effect and give a relief from humid conditions of the atmosphere. It is seen that the Odisha Forest Development Corporation Limited is now carrying out avenue plantations in the Smart City of Bhubaneswar, but they do this most unscientifically.
Now, the riverbank plantations of Mahanadi are going up for multifarious benefits. Though it is too late to take up the programme, but it is surely a welcome step. Mostly the soil and water conservation measures are taken up through river bank plantations. Not only the Mahanadi river, all the river bank of the State including the rivulets, Nalas, creeks, coal banks, embankments, bunds of wetlands and reservoirs lake etc. should be planted. All these things should be assessed beat-wise as a smallest unit of operation.
Odisha is mostly a land of peninsular origin, when it is mostly prone to oceanic disasters. So the plantations like raising of wind-brake, shelter-belt and sand dune stabilisation should be carried out to prevent disastrous situations. There are a majority of plant species in our eco-systems, which can be raised for achieving economic values and as well as to prevent climatic hazards. So such species are to be planted massively to counter the hazardous climatic situations.
Now, the entire globe is going to be carbon mega capital of the universe due to the race for industrialisation. So the growing of green-belts throughout the globe to redress the carbon deposits is the only alternative. The green barriers are known as ‘carbon sinks’, which transform the carbon into energy and releases oxygen for the living world. The ‘Mahanadi Green-Mission’ is for creating this carbon sink. This mission can be extended throughout the State. The urban plantations need perfect scrutinisation while selection of trees is done. The shallow rooted and brittle trees should not be preferred to be planted as avenue trees along the road side. The urban parks and gardens including the public institutions should also prefer the wind resistant flowering trees to beautify the surroundings.
The use of inputs for promising growth of the plant species is most important. Generally, chemical fertilizers are used in the plantations to force the growth of the plants, which is quite dangerous to the mother earth. These fertilizers are not prepared through biological process. These are prepared chemically and they are not from nature. We have voluminous quantity of garbage in the cities, towns, urban and rural areas, which are daily produced from household activities. Such garbage can be recycled in to fertilizers from bio-degradable household products. So the State Government as well as the Central Government should institute re-cycling factories of garbage in various places in the State as per the need. Such factories are mostly needed to overcome the excessive uses of artificial chemical fertilisers. Similarly, the polythene pollutions should be avoided and in place of polythene, the biodegraded bags can be promoted. It is very common and general that, our natural eco-systems and plantations are burning in every fire season annually. This has to be prevented at any cost.
(The writer is a former forest officer and environmentalist. M-9937460649)