Saplings at the nursery of the city forest division near Khandagiri. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, May 20: The forest department will plant 39,000 saplings to create a green belt along the new 67-km Puri-Bhubaneswar national highway.

Three forest divisions will carry out the plantation work from the second week of July.

With environmental experts blaming blacktop roads for he rise in the daytime temperature in the city, the plantation will help control local heating due to the road.

Divisional forest officer (DFO) of Puri Chitta Mishra, the nodal officer for the plantation programme, said the forest divisions of Bhubaneswar, Khurda and Puri would take up the plantation work in their respective areas.

While the Puri division will plant 16,000 saplings along 28km, the Khurda division will have a target of planting 12,000 saplings in a 20km stretch under its jurisdiction. The Bhubaneswar city forest division will undertake plantation along a 12km stretch.

Indigenous species such as jamun, ficus, peepal, patali, maha neem, neem, mango and karanj are the saplings that will be used from the 28 species available in the nurseries of the forest department. “We have chosen indigenous species because they will be able to adapt better to the local conditions and grow faster than species from other regions,” said the Puri DFO.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will take care of the saplings for five years.

“Normally, saplings are looked after for three years after they are planted. In this case, the NHAI will take care of them for two more years to ensure a better survival rate. Apart from the maintenance, the NHAI authorities will also put tree guards around each sapling to protect them from grazing animals,” Mishra said.

Khurda DFO Akshaya Patnaik said: “The plantation will also cover the connecting roads along the NH-203 diversion.”

Bhubaneswar DFO Jayant Kumar Das said the stretch of the NH-203 near the city would be 12km long. “Initially, there was a plan to plant 11,000 saplings within our territory. But we have now decided to plant 10,000 saplings,’’ he said.

The 67km NH diversion was built for smooth vehicular movement during the Nabakalebara festival of Lord Jagannath in 2015, when 12 lakh devotees are expected to visit Puri.