Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Monday announced to plant at least 19 lakh palm trees to reduce the number of deaths caused by lightning.
The palm trees will be planted by the forest and agriculture departments in different areas.
According to state government officials, palm trees were initially put in the endangered species list. However, later it was excluded from the list, leading to felling of these trees in a large scale. Since the disappearance of palm trees is directly ascribed to increasing lightning strikes in the state, the state forest department decided to withdraw the exemption list.
As per the decision, four trees will be planted at the four sides of each forest block’s boundary pillar in 52 divisions. For this, the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) will spend Rs 7.5 crore.
“Besides reducing lightning-related mishaps, planting of large-scale palm trees would help solve elephants’ food problems and strengthen the boundary pillars of the forest department,” informed Principal Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Debidutta Biswal.
He added, “Until today, palm trees were exempted species. No permission was required to cut them. Because of this, all roadside palm trees have vanished. So we have withdrawn the exemption. It implies that one should get permission from the forest department to cut a palm tree, even if they own it. If they cut it without getting permission, action would be taken as per the law. The legal provisions for cutting Sal (teak) trees are also applicable for palm trees,” said the PCCF.
On April 1, 2015, the Odisha government had declared lightning a “state-specific disaster.” A family of a deceased person due to a lightning strike receives Rs 4 lakh ex-gratia. But recently, Odisha also floated a proposal to the Centre to declare lightning as a natural disaster.
According to the Annual Lightning Report 2021-22, most victims of lighting are from rural areas (96 per cent) which include farmers, cattle grazers, fishermen, jungle hunters and labourers working in the open. The report also highlighted that lightning strikes increased 34 per cent from 2019-20 to 2020-21 and then reduced by 19.5 per cent in 2021-22.
Odisha had managed to lessen its lightning-related casualties to 156 in 2020-21 from 207 in 2019-20.
