By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, July 2022: Odisha government is planning for mangrove plantations in around 930 hectares of land along the identified patches in four forest divisions to improve Odisha’s mangrove cover which will go a long way as a protective barrier against cyclone and tidal surge for the coastal belt of the State.

The plantation will be taken up in Mangrove Forest Division Rajnagar as well as Balasore, Puri and Bhadrak, official sources said adding that mangrove plantation will be carried out in 810 hectares of Rajnagar mangrove division and 75 hectares in Balasore division. This apart from 30 hectares in Puri and 15 hectares in the Bhadrak division will be covered.

As per the statistics of the Forest, Environment and Climate Change department, mangrove plantation has been taken up in a total of 318 hectares in the State under the Conservation and Management of Mangrove project in the last three years between 2019-20 and 2021-22.

The latest mangrove cover assessment carried out by the Forest Survey of India for the year 2021 states that Odisha’s mangrove cover, spread over five districts – Kendrapara, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur and Puri – stands at around 259 square km, around 8 square km more than the previous assessment carried out in 2019.

The plantation activities will be mostly assisted natural regeneration (ANR) which involves human protection and preservation of natural tree seedlings in forested areas and artificial regeneration which involves direct seeding, as well as planting.

Around 580 hectares of mangrove plantation will be done using the artificial regeneration method while the remaining 350 hectares will be covered through ANR. The ANR plantation will be done in Bagagahan saline zone of Rajnagar within Bhitarkanika for the first time to restore its mangrove forest cover.

The fresh plantation if carried out as per plan will increase the mangrove cover of the State by another 9 square km. Forest officials said the lush mangrove cover often acts as a protective barrier against cyclone and tidal surge for the coastal belt of the State, which is extremely vulnerable to natural calamities.