Schoolchildren carry out an awareness campaign on the importance of planting trees in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, July 3: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to assign the job of plantation in the city to Odisha Forest Development Corporation (OFDC). The OFDC will plant 9,500 saplings during the monsoon in the city’s 60 wards.

The plantation drive, which will be undertaken at a cost of Rs 65 lakh, will cover the bylanes of all the wards. The corporation has decided to allocate the funds to OFDC in three phases to monitor the plantation drive.

The BMC’s standing committee constituted for this purpose has decided that the corporation will spend Rs 687 per sapling. The money covers the care of the trees for two years by OFDC.

“Earlier, we used to assign the job to non-government organisations (NGOs), but the survival rate of the saplings has been a major concern for us. But this time, we will ensure that the survival rate of the saplings remains 100 per cent,” said S.K. Nijamudin, a member of the standing committee.

Under this year’s plantation programme, saplings of Neem, Ashoka, Karanj and Sunari will be planted. The sites for the plantation drive has also been finalised.

Earlier, the BMC had been engaging private firms and various NGOs for plantation within the corporation area, but the survival rate of the saplings was very low. Sources in the BMC said that as many as 10,640 saplings were planted by the civic body in 2010-11 and another 6,000 saplings in 2011-12. But these plantation drives were flop shows because very few saplings survived.

Last year, the corporation had formed 15 zones for the plantation drive and three NGOs were assigned the job. The BMC was supposed to spend Rs 214 for taking care of each of the saplings. But the corporation so far has not given any money to any of the three organisations.

Bhubaneswar has been witnessing large-scale cutting of tress to facilitate various developmental projects. Sources said nearly 8,000 trees were felled between 2005 and 2011 for various projects such as the expansion of roads and construction of governmental establishments.

The need for a green cover was felt this summer when the mercury climbed to an all time high in the city. Experts also felt that trees are instrumental in keeping the temperature under control. “The city has been witnessing large scale cutting of trees and small water bodies are fast vanishing. The authorities must plant sufficient saplings to regulate the temperature to some extent,” said N.K. Mahalik, a retired professor of Utkal University.

BMC environment officer Bikram Keshari Routray said the lack of expertise and absence of adequate manpower to look after the saplings were the reasons behind the failure of plantation drives in the past. “We are hopeful that the plantation programme is successful this time because the OFDC has expertise in this field,” said Routray.

The state government has decided to carry out a plantation drive over two lakh hectares in Odisha this year. A proposal has also been made to cover 16,000km of roads in avenue plantation.