Phulbani: The Forest department on Wednesday initiated a major step to preserve thousands of roadside trees along NH-59 by transplanting them to safer locations instead of cutting them down for road expansion.
As per reports, the Forest department aims to transplant as many as 2,649 large and valuable roadside trees in view of expansion of the NH-59 under Baliguda-Daringbadi forest division.
The process of transplantation was carried out under the supervision of RCCF Berhampur and Baliguda DFO. Workers dug a trench around a tree after which a JCB uprooted it and moved it to the new plantation location.
“For widening NH-59, we would have been forced to cut 2,649 trees along the highway, but considering the environmental factors, we proposed the National Highway Authority to transplant those trees instead of cutting,” said S. Panth, RCCF, Berhampur.