Orissa's forest cover inadequate for growing GHG emission

BHUBANESWAR: Forest cover in Orissa, which absorbs Green House Gases (GHG) generated by industrial units, may be inadequate to cope with emission levels expected to increase due to upcoming thermal power and steel plants in the state, says a noted environmental scientist.

Though the state's existing forest area has the potential to neutralise 154 million tonnes of GHG, steel, thermal power, aluminium and cement industries alone generated 164 million tonnes at present which was 7.8 per cent of the total emission of such gases in the country, M C Dash, former Chairman of the State Pollution Control Board, Orissa, said.

Emission of such gases from industries, transport, agriculture and household sector had not been taken into consideration for the study due to lack of authentic data, he said delivering a lecture on "Environmental Pollution" at Siksha O Anusandhan University (SOAU) here.

Quoting data from a research conducted on the subject, Dash said when all the new thermal projects proposed to be set up in the Angul-Talcher-Jharsuguda belt with a total installed capacity of 25,860 mw were commissioned, it would generate an additional 180.2 million tonnes of GHG.