Bhubaneswar: In its bid to reduce fatalities due to lightning strikes, the Odisha government has announced a new initiative to plant palm trees worth Rs six crore in the state during the current financial year.
Sharing this information, Forest and Environment Minister Ganesh Ram Singh Khuntia said that the state government is committed to enhancing public safety as well as environmental conservation.
Highlighting the importance of palm trees in mitigating the impact of lightning strikes, the Minister said palm trees act as natural lightning conductors and help disperse electrical charges during thunderstorms and reduce chances of casualties.
Notably, the state government had in June 2015 declared lightning a state-specific disaster. Last year, it was made mandatory for the people to obtain permission from the forest department for cutting palm trees even if in their own backyard.
Stressing that the state government is intensifying efforts to plant more palm trees across lightning-prone areas, the Minister said earlier also a target to plant 20 lakh palm trees was set last year and it was successfully achieved.
Encouraged by the success achieved last year, the department has now resolved to scale up the initiative substantially. “We have decided to spend Rs five to Rs six crore in planting palm trees this year,” he said.
Describing the move as a life-saving initiative, the Minister said that the aim is to reduce fatalities due to lightning strikes, especially in rural and semi-urban regions where people are more exposed to open areas during storms.
The department will identify vulnerable zones, including open farmlands, village outskirts, and highways, for large-scale plantation. The trees will not only serve a safety purpose but also support the ecological balance and provide long-term benefits to the local environment, he added.
