In the aftermath of the Phailin that affected 15 districts of the State, the State Government has set an ambitious target to plant more than 12 crore seedlings during 2014-15.
Of these seedlings, around 6.5 crore would be planted under different State and Central schemes and 5.5 crore would be distributed to farmers for plantation in their own lands, said official sources. This year’s slogan for the plantation drive is “each one, plant one”. The decision was taken at a meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary JK Mohapatra on Friday.
It was decided to set up 16 mega nurseries in different parts of the State. The concerned department was advised to set up one permanent nursery in each block. Temporary nurseries would also be raised to produce adequate seedlings for meeting the target. All the concerned agencies and departments were asked to expedite preliminary preparations like identification of land, raising of nurseries, release of funds in advance, etc, right from now.
The Forest & Environment and Revenue & Disaster Management Departments were asked to complete identification of land by March 2014. The Forest Department was advised to choose appropriate species of plants suitable for various climatic zones and avenue plantation. The Forest Development Corporation was directed to undertake commercial plantation. Since avenue plantation in many areas has been visibly successful, it was also decided to scale up the drive during 2014-15. It was decided to undertake plantation along the side of PMGSY roads, canal embankments and railway lines.
It has been targeted to take up plantation in 11,300 hectares of land under the State Plan, 5,557 hectares under Compensatory Afforestation, 24,100 hectares under the MGNREGS, 2,500 hectares under the Odisha Bamboo Development Agency in forest area (National Bamboo Mission) in both forest and non-forest areas and 8,910 hectares under the National Afforestation Programme making a grand total of 52,368 hectares. 1The Panchayati Raj Secretary was advised to aggregate the district plans of plantation under the MGNREGS and make arrangements for release of funds well in advance to the Forest Department.