Jharkhand coal dumps go green with mango orchards

The Jharkhand forest department has launched a project which aims at growing mango orchards in coal wastelands surrounding the Dhanbad coal mines.

The project, named the Green Black, is part of the government's plan to reclaim wastelands surrounding abandoned coal mines by planting trees in the mineral-rich wastelands. Earlier, cashew plantations were developed in the area surrounding the abandoned coal mines of Dhanbad.

Encouraged by the success of this initiative, the state forest department has now decided to grow mango orchards in the area.

The forest department has brought mango saplings from Malda district in West Bengal, famous since the time of the Nawabs for its top-quality sweet mango variants like Himsagar.

The trees would be planted in Govindpur colliery area under the Bharat Coking Coal Limited.

Several kinds of timbre trees will also be planted in between the rows of mango trees.

According to divisional forest officer Sanjeev Kumar, developing mango plantations in the coal wastelands will help the area transform into a commercial forestry zone. The development of beautiful green spots is expected to attract tourists and visitors.

Teams comprising employees of the forest department and the coal companies would be formed to identify all the mines where the 'Green the Black' project would be taken up and implemented.

It was decided at a recent government meeting that parallel plantation campaign would soon be taken up in and around the abandoned mines of Chirkunda area, and certain areas from Kapuria to Bhelatand near mines operated by Tata Steel.

Kumar said the survival rate of the plants was fairly high in the area mined by Eastern Coalfields Limited.

Forest department had carried out plantation work on some 400 hectares in that colliery area.