Bhubaneswar: The Forest, Environment and Climate Change Department has restricted the falling of Palm trees without the permission of concerned authority.
In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 45 of the Odisha Forest Act, 1972 (Odisha Act 14 of 1972), the State Government amended the Odisha Timber and Other Forest Produce Transit Rules, 1980, to enforce the order, Forest officials said.
The Forest Department has enforced the order in order to restrict death due to lightning strikes, said Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) and Head of Forest Staff, Debidutta Biswal today.
Since palm trees act as good natural conductors during lightning strikes and prevent loss of lives, the government had taken the decision in September 2023. Now, the Forest department would implement the decision strictly, he said.
As palm trees were an exempt species and no permission was required to cut them, all roadside palm trees have been vanished, he pointed out.
“Now we have withdrawn the exemption. It means, one should get permission from the Forest Department to cut a Palm tree, even if they own it. If they cut it without getting permission, action would be taken as per the law,” the PCCF warned.
The legal amounts to cutting of Sal or Teak trees are now also applicable for Palm trees, he added.
The Forest, Environment and Climate Change Department has also decided to plant 19 lakh palm trees to check lightning strikes and resultant fatalities in the State. The trees will be planted in all forest blocks of the state for which Rs 7.6 crore will be provided by the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA), sources said.
The sources said the drive will be carried out at 4,479 notified forest blocks spread over 39,671 sq km of boundary lines across all territorial and wildlife divisions. The total number of boundary pillars in the forest blocks comes to around 4.80 lakh and four palm trees will be planted near each pillar.