BHUBANESWAR, Odisha: The Government of Odisha is planning to introduce a mangrove plantation on 930 hectares, comprising areas of four Mangrove Forest Divisions of Puri, Balasore, Rajnagar and Bhadrak.
As per the sources, this plantation drive will cover 810 hectares of area in the Rajnagar mangrove division, 75 hectares in Balasore, 30 hectares in Puri and 15 hectares in the Bhadrak division.
On 580 hectares of land, mangrove plantations will be done using an artificial regeneration method, which involves direct seeding and planting of mangrove saplings. While on 350 hectares of land, mangrove plantation will be done using assisted natural regeneration (ANR) in which natural tree seedlings planted in the forested areas are preserved and protected by humans. The ANR plantation method will be done on the Bagagahan saline zone of Rajnagar within Bhitarkanika to restore the mangrove cover of the area.
As per the data of the Department of Forest, Environment and Climate change, the state has taken up mangrove plantation initiatives on a total of 318 hectares of land in the last three years under the Conservation and Management of Mangrove project.
According to the statistics published by the Forest Survey of India in its biennial report, the mangrove cover in Odisha is spread across five districts – Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Balasore, Jagatsinghpur and Puri. In the latest assessment of 2021, the total mangrove cover of the state stood at around 259 square km, which is 8 square km more than the assessment carried out in 2019. This new mangrove plantation drive will add another 9 square km to the state mangrove repository. Mangrove cover acts as a protective barrier against cyclones and tidal surges, thus, preventing any catastrophic damage as well as erosion of the coastal belts that are highly vulnerable to natural disasters.