Mahakalapara: The cashew forests on a Mahanadi islet close to Bahakud village under Ramnagar panchayat of this block in Kendrapara district are bearing the brunt of erosion by the sea with the water level rising continuously. Hundreds of cashew trees have been washed away after being battered by high tidal waves. The cashew forest is spread over 233 acres of sand bed. Earlier there were around 5,000 cashew trees.
However, hundreds of them have washed away due to the cyclonic storms that lashed the district between 1999 and 2019. The storms that have battered the district are Super Cyclone (1999), Phailin (2013), Hudhud (2014), Titili (2018) and Fani (2019).
Environmentalists fear that the rest of the forest and the river islet will soon lose their existence if urgent measures are not taken to check the coastal erosion. With climate change impacting the whole world, a rise in sea level is causing mayhem, they said. The tidal waves are gushing towards land mass and eroding vast tracts of lands.
As a result, many river islets and land masses are slowly losing their existence after being gobbled up by the tidal waves. Two other cashew forests are also located within Ramnagar panchayat.
One of them is at Pitapata while the other is at Ramnagar. There are approximately 5,000 trees spread over 182 acre of land in Pitapata and over 10,000 trees on 354 acres of land in Ramnagar. The three cashew forests are managed by Odisha Cashew Development Corporation (OCDC). Fruits from the trees are auctioned every year by the OCDC and it earns in lakhs. The cashew forests serve as a source of livelihood for the locals.
Reports said that the cashew forests were first developed in the area by the state Horticulture department in 1972. The OCDC later took over the plantation from 1979-80 and has been managing it since then.