By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday in his 75th edition of Mann Ki Baat, has lauded Kendrapara’s Bijay Kumar Kabi and Paradip’s Amresh Samant for their noble work.
“Just as… a friend Bijay Kumar Kabiji. Bijayji hails from Kendrapada in Odisha. Kendrapara is on the sea coast. That’s why there are many villages in this district, which are prone to the dangers of high tides and Cyclone. This also causes havoc at times. Bijoyji felt that if anything can stop this environmental devatation, theonly thing that can stop it, it is only nature. That is when Bijayji began his mission from the village of Barakot and for12 years… Friends, toiling for the next 12 years he raised a 25-acre mangrove forest on the outskirts of the village towards the sea. Today this forest is protecting this village,” the PM said.
“An engineer AmreshSamantji has done similar work in Paradip district of Odisha. Amreshji has planted micro- forests, which are protecting many villages today. Friends, in Endeavour’s of thesekinds, if we involve the society,great results accrue,”the PM said.
One of India’s worst climate hotspots, Odisha experiences floods, cyclones, storms, droughts, among other natural disasters. With extreme weather conditions, the 492 km stretch coast spread across six coastal districts have seen heavy erosion in the past. Over the past 12 years, Bijay Kumar Kabi the residents of Badakot have converted degraded land into a 25-acre mangrove forest that protects their village from eroding away.Kendrapara is among the six districts in the most vulnerable hotspots namely Pentha, Gahirmatha and Satabhya—that witness high erosion.
Badakot lies along the periphery of Bhitarkanika, one of the largest mangrove ecosystems in India and a Ramsar site.Kendrapada district in Odisha hosts the famous Bhitarkanika National Park, home to a mangrove forest which is one among the two Ramsar sites from Odisha.
The site, spread in an area of around 672 sq.kms has several species of mangrove plants that act as a protective layer to the land from the harsh oceanic waves emanating from the Bay of Bengal.Along the periphery of Bhitarkanika lies the village of Badakot, which is vulnerable to natural disasters and highly prone to erosion from the brackish water river which runs along the village at one side.However, erosion and its threat had never been an alien phenomenon for the villagers of Badakot.
