BMC to plant 5,000 saplings to cover the green loss post Fani

BHUBANESWAR:  Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has planned to increase the plantation of saplings to about 5,000 this year after the heavy loss due to cyclone Fani.

BMC plants around 3,000 saplings in the 67 wards every year. However, during Fani many trees in the city were uprooted. Therefore, the BMC has planned to increase the number of saplings to 5,000 this year. This initiative was taken against the Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) department’s plan to restore the green cover by planting tall trees.

Kapliendra Sethi, environment officer, BMC, said, “While the estimates are still in process, a tentative loss of Rs 20 lakh has been incurred to the affected areas of BMC. Apart from BMC, other authorities will also be planting trees which include Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), Odisha Forest Development Corporation (OFDC) and other private bodies.”

Botanists and experts recommended that the city administration must now focus on planting trees that could withstand strong cyclonic winds as 99 per cent of trees in the city suffered damage. While some were uprooted, many others were broken.

Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) has decided to plant 23,500 saplings at 11 different sites across the city. The plantation will be taken up mostly in major city parks like Biju Patnaik Park, Indira Gandhi Park, Buddha Jayanti Park, Buddha Jayanti Park Hilltop, Madhusudan Das Park and Netaji Subash Bose Park.