CUTTACK: The outskirts of Cuttack city is witnessing a unique green revolution. With fast-paced expansion of the city and urbanisation of its periphery, the region has been turning into concrete landscapes with barren surroundings due to mindless cutting down of trees. But today, a transformation is setting in. It is now home to at least four mini forests that have not only helped restore the green cover to some extent but are also providing a source of earning to the locals.
It all started from Sainda Nachhipur, a riverside village about 10 km from Cuttack city. The men behind were Basudev Patra, a loco pilot in Indian Railways, and his band of volunteers. Almost a decade back, Patra, seeing the rapid denudation of the village periphery ventured to start planting saplings in the village under Urali gram panchayat on his own. He also chose the nearby river and canal embankment for the purpose.
Seeing his drive to plant trees, around 20 more youths of the village joined him and formed the Hindustan Helping Hands organisation in 2019. Today, they have created four mini forests on over one to 10 acre of land in various parts of the region.
“With more youths coming forward to plant trees, we decided to launch plantation drives in areas on the outskirts of Cuttack and Cuttack Sadar with an aim to improve the green cover and regenerate forests. We approached officials concerned to allow us to do the plantation on unused government land and they approved our proposal,” said Manas Ranjan Nayak, president of the organisation.
They started their first major plantation drive in 2019. They planted saplings of 1,000 different kinds of fruit-bearing plants like mango, wood apple, blackberry, carambola, jackfruit, guava and sapota, over one acre of land between Kathajodi river and Kakatpur main canal. The trees have now grown and started bearing fruits. The green warriors have named this forest ‘Fruit Zone’.
A year later, they planted 2,200 saplings of medicinal plants like neem, peepal, Indian gooseberry, bael, karanja, arjuna, Indian bay leaf, tulsi and castor on 2.5 acre of land located on Sidhua river bank. They named this ‘Little Amazon’. Similarly in 2021, they came up with another small forest ‘Hollywood’ on four acre of land adjacent to Nacchipur crematorium. This houses 2,500 different varieties including fruits and medicinal plants.
The next year, they planted 3,100 saplings on three acre at Usuma gram panchayat and named this small forest after President of India Droupadi Murmu. Last Sunday, the members began a new drive to plant 10,000 saplings of various species over 10 acre at Sankhatras on Kathajodi river bank, for a proposed forest ‘The New Sundarban’.
“We prepared saplings and fenced the 10 acre area with iron wires and concrete pillars for carrying out the mega plantation programme involving around 150 people. Our drive is not just limited to planting trees. We water and fertilise them regularly to ensure that the saplings survive and grow,” said Manas Ranjan Nayak, president of the organisation.
What started as a small group of greens championing the cause of afforestation, is today a strong army of 213 volunteers. Besides plantation drives, members of the organisation are running an institution ‘The Endeavour’ at Link Road in Cuttack to provide free coaching to students and youths from poor families to prepare for competitive examinations. So far, 45 youths have secured government jobs and some of them are also contributing a part of their salaries for running the organisation and the plantation drives, said Atulya Kumar Samal, secretary of the organisation. The members also regularly donate blood to critical patients in both Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.