Bhubaneswar: State govt has taken several measures to mitigate the impact of climate change, forest, environment and climate change minister Ganesh Ram Singkhuntia informed the assembly on Tuesday.
He said Odisha is facing the impact of climate change and witnesses floods, cyclones, droughts, rise in sea level, heatwaves, tremors, landslides and extreme and erratic rainfall.“If adequate measures are not taken now, the state may face major problems in the future,” he added. The minister said the govt is implementing several measures by following the departmental disaster management plan prepared in 2022-23.
As a part of the plan, the govt has started afforestation activities on forest and non-forest lands. In the last five years, it has planted trees on 54,500 hectares of land, covered 3.63 lakh hectares with assisted natural regeneration activities and conducted avenue plantation. The govt has planted 17.21 crore trees and distributed 15.29 crore saplings to the people for plantation. We are also trying to create artificial forests. We are also using technology and science for the protection of forests. We are taking measures to control forest fires,” said the minister.
He said they are adopting climate change-resilient crops for food security and taking other steps in this regard. “In cities, the govt has renovated water bodies, created green parks and treat wastewater and garbage,” he added. Singkhuntia said Odisha’s 480-km-long coastline is prone to natural calamities. “To protect the coastline from the impact of cyclones, floods and erosion, govt has created mangrove forests on 1,234 hectares of land and planted casuarina trees on 72 hectares,” he added.

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