CUTTACK: Extremely severe cyclone Fani has left a trail of destruction in the central nursery of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC).
The nursery, spread over 2.5 acre of land at Badambadi, is a prominent facility where rare and valuable saplings are available at reasonable prices. The nursery attracts people from across the State due to the variety of plants on offer.
However, cyclone Fani has damaged its greenhouses and a large number of saplings. Around 70 trees like Mango, Cassia Tora, Cedar, Teak and others have been uprooted by the monstrous storm that wreaked havoc in the city on May 3.
As many as five greenhouses made of polythene and over 30,000 saplings have been damaged in the nursery.
“We had prepared around 10,000 saplings of different varieties of forest trees such as Patali, Satyana, Karanja, Neem and Pistachio for plantation during the upcoming Vana Mahotsav programme. However, all the saplings were destroyed in the cyclone,” said CMC park-in-charge Prakash Lenka
He said over 10,000 saplings of different flowers like Mandar, Kaniar, Tagar, Mini Tagar, Tarata and Euphorbia were also damaged in the cyclone. The civic body, which had set up a medicinal garden on the premises of the central nursery in 2014, was preparing to sell saplings of about 65 varieties of medicinal plants and herbs such as Nageswara, Vringaraj, Lemon Grass, Hatapocha, Satabari and Aswagandha.
The cyclone, however, ruined about 6,000 saplings of medicinal plants and herbs and also damaged the boundary wall of the garden. Moreover, around 5,000 show flower pots of the central nursery were also destroyed in the cyclone.
Though the caretakers are watering the remaining plants in the nursery using a generator since May 5, their efforts have failed to yield the desired result due to gruelling heat and lack of green cover. If steps are not taken on a war footing to restore the greenhouses, the saplings will perish in the heat, said a caretaker.