Kolkata: When cyclone Amphan badly affected the means of livelihood for a large section of people in South 24-Parganas with agricultural land getting heavily inundated, the initiative of Mamata Banerjee's government to plant mangrove in Sunderbans has come up as a saviour.
The reason being 2.20 lakh mandays job has been created under MGNREGA by mangrove plantation in a record time of two-and-a-half
months.
Following direction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to restore greenery that got damaged due to the super
cyclone on May 20, the state government had taken up the biggest plantation drive of planting 5 crore mangrove saplings on 2,500 hectares at Sunderbans in South 24-
Parganas.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had inaugurated the project on June 5. As trees on 1,600 sq km out of the total 4,200 sq km in
Sunderbans, that is an international tourist spot and a heritage site, was completely destroyed.
Taking all necessary measures to ensure the work in war footing as preservation
of the mangroves was
considered to be mandatory to protect the entire region from getting damaged due
to storms, plantation of micro saplings has already been carried out on 400 hectares
in the area under Sunderban Biosphere Reserve that is
in the eastern part of river Matla.
Out of total 2,500 hectares, around 2,000 hectares are under Sunderban Biosphere Reserve. While the remaining 500 hectares are in the area under
Sunderban Tiger Reserve.
The reserve consists of Sunderban National Park and Sajnekhali Wildlife
Sanctuary and a small buffer zone.
The areas in Sunderban Biosphere Reserve,
where the planting of saplings has been carried out in the past one month, include Raidighi, Ramganga,
Namkhana and Bhagabanpur. With the efforts of
the officials of the state Forest department, so far 2.20 lakh mandays have been created in collection of seedlings and planting of micro saplings through convergence
scheme.
The officials also held a meeting with 12 NGOs considering their support in coordinating with local people in the plantation work would be beneficial.
Local people are engaged in the work and each of them is receiving Rs 204 per day for the job.
Each day plantation is being carried out on 100 to 200
hectares of the identified
land.
Though collection of seeds in the area under Sunderban Tiger Reserve is going on, the plantation here will begin in the end of August as it is suitable as per the geographical location.
A senior state government official said: "Plantation of micro saplings in the
remaining 2,100 hectares of land with a target of creating 31 lakh mandays by December will be carried out in the same format."