Development weeds out common grass in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, April 5: Concrete buildings and other developmental projects weeded out common grasses from Bhubaneswar city.  About 30 species of common grasses vanished out from the green environment of Bhubaneswar causing an environmental threat to human being and animal. The environment of old Bhubaneswar was almost green. It was surrounded by long range of forests. Thus its climate was very favourable to live here. Similarly, Bhubaneswar was one of the best places for cattle and animals, since, Bhubaneswar grounds were having as many as 120 species of grasses. Most of them were eatable for cattle and some wildlife. That is why, there were long pastoral lands near Bhubaneswar with a good number of cattle along with wildlife including  hare and rain-deer and spotted deer in the closer forests.     On the other hand, the wide varieties of grasses in Bhubaneswar was working as a green carpet for the people. It was protecting the whole city from intense temperature absorbing the roasting heat of the sun. Now a days, Bhubaneswar is one of the hottest city of India for its loss of greenery. Its average temperature touches about 44 degree Celsius in March. As per the environmentalists, vanish out of grasses from the city is one of the major cause for extreme warming in Bhubaneswar. As many as 360 species of common grasses are normally seen in Odisha climate. Almost 120 of them were seen plentifully in Bhubaneswar earlier. As many as 30 most   common species of grasses from them have permanently vanished from here due to loss of land. Black top road, buildings and other infrastructure projects in the city have eaten them up. Only a few cultured and artificially developed grasses are replaced in lawn and yards. That’s why the ground radiate extreme heat to the environment, said the scientist of Bio-diversity Board, Prashad Dash.