Forest Deptt to undertake massive palm plantation drive in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The Forest, Environment and Climate Change (FE&CC) department has plans to undertake a massive palm (Tala) plantation drive along the notified forest block boundaries during the next planting seasons (i.e. FY 2024-25 and 2025-26), with OSDMA fund.

“A palm tree has multiple benefits. It acts as a lightning arrester alongside securing the forest block boundaries. It also provides fodder to wild animals, especially elephants,” Additional Chief Secretary of FE&CC department and Odisha Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Satyabrata Sahu said.

It was decided in the recently held State level DFO Conference in the presence of FE&CC Minister Pradip Kumar Amat after thorough discussions in this regard. The human-elephant conflict will be lowered after the completion of the plantation drive.

There are 4,479 numbers of notified forest blocks with 39,671 square kilometres of boundary lines. The total number of boundary pillars in these forest blocks comes to 4,80,207. It is proposed to plant four palm trees near each boundary pillar along the forest block boundary.

Notably, around 19 lakh palm trees will be planted at an expense of nearly Rs 7.5 crore.