File picture of Posco site in Jagatsinghpur where trees were cut last year

Paradip, Aug. 29: The area on the periphery of the proposed Posco steel plant project is set to get forest cover as a plan gets under way to compensate for the loss of greenery in the area.

Steps are being taken to regenerate mangroves along the deltaic region close to the proposed steel plant.

Last year, the state government had cleared nearly 2,000 acres of land of trees for the Posco project.

Tidal waves regularly enter villages near the project site as the forest cover near the Jatadhari river mouth has nearly been wiped out. The trees used to act as a natural buffer against the waves.

Sources said that compensatory afforestation would be taken up along the 3,000-acre stretch along the periphery of the project area. It is now mandatory for the steelmaker to regenerate greenery on a place equal to the area where deforestation had taken place along the Mahanadi deltaic region, said a forest official.

“The forest department has taken measures for afforestation because of the loss of forest cover in the project area. The afforestation programme would get under way in a phased manner. In the first phase, 170 hectares of revenue land in Nadiakhia near Kujang has been selected for plantation of mangroves. The spot is ideal for mangrove regeneration because it is a marshy land where tidal waves regularly enter,” said Manoj Kumar Mahapatra, divisional forest officer, Rajnagar mangrove (wildlife) forest division.

A total of 3.60 lakh plant varieties would be planted at the earmarked wetland near Kujang.

The plantation work will begin next month.