Report by Amarnath Parida; Jagatsinghpur: POSCO Company has committed to plant 20 lakh trees against just 2.5 trees existing the proposed site in a planned manner to give a much greener colour to the existing sandy landscape. In addition to this POSCO has deposited Rs.100 crores with the state govt. for compensatory additional afforestation elsewhere earmarked by the forest department.

The company is not only committed to make the exiting project site area greener than what is today but also add the forest cover with over 3000 acres elsewhere in the state. Company will also fully compensate against the existing revenue-plantations and implement the state Govt’s new R&R policy in letter and spirit.

Out of 4004 acres land required for the project, 3586 is state land. Within the state land, 2953 land is coming under forest land and to change its land for industry purposes there is provision under Forest Conservation Act. As per the provision under Forest Conservation Act, the company will create alternate forests to mitigate the industry’s adverse impact on environment.

As per conditions set by Union Ministry of Forest, the company has to undertake compensatory forestry programme. A four-member committee would oversee the company’s activities in fulfilling the conditions set by the Centre. In a bid to enable the company to undertake compensatory afforestation activities, the state government had identified as many as 1253.225 hectares for the purpose.

District Rehabilitation Officer Mr Surjeet Dash has expressed that the company will undertake compensatory afforestation activities in the Kujang and Balikuda areas of Jagatsinghpur district, Tangi- Chudwar of Cuttack and Darpani of Jajpur district. A total of 1269 hectare of land would be covered under the company’s compensatory afforestation programme.