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Pride of steel and trees, too
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In Ukkunagaram today, every house and every department inside or outside the plant are set amidst beautiful landscapes.
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Thick green foliage surrounding the VSP administrative complex. - Photo : K.R. Deepak
``The best place to seek God is in a garden; you can dig for Him there.''---Bernard Shaw
Visakhapatnam Steel Plant seems to have taken this piece of advice seriously. It is toiling tirelessly to produce red hot steel in the cover of green.
The production of each tonne of steel is laced with the effort of sowing and nurturing of one tree. In tune with its annual production capacity of three million tonnes, it has raised 3.5 million trees over the last decade.
Being a Central public sector undertaking and despite being in the red for the last few years, the plant has never let its ecological balance and preservation programme sag an inch. ''Conservation of Environment'', has become part of VSP's corporate culture. The programme has so vigorously been taken up that a visiting foreign dignitary some time back referred to it as a ''steel plant in a forest''.
All these did not happen with a mere twist of the magic wand; it was made possible by deep concern for the environment, meticulous planning and the indomitable zeal to execute it, but not until the top soil was wet with the sweat of the VSP collective.
It is a known fact that afforestation plays a crucial role in containing industrial pollution, as the plants have a capacity to absorb significant quantities of heat and effluents let into the atmosphere and in return enrich the ambient air with more oxygen. It also acts as noise, wind and dust barrier.
To create a safe and healthy environment for its workers and the inhabitants of the surrounding neighbourhood, the VSP management adopted this programme.
But the drive was not smooth, with its own vagaries and challenges. The major challenge was the topography and varied soil textures of the land extent.
Adding to this was the 8 km. long coastline, a vast saline area, besides numerous denuded and eroded hills that dotted the 8,742 hectare of the plant area. Challenges were not new to VSP.
The afforestation programme was launched in 1986, with the careful selection of species and earmarking the areas to get the maximum results.
The main feature of this planning and execution was the creation of a green belt. A 500-metre wide green belt around the VSP land boundary was created by planting 17.60 lakh saplings, which today have grown to tall trees, almost camouflaging the plant itself.
It was envisaged that this green belt would act as a screen between the plant and the thickly populated neighbourhood.
The second part of the afforestation programme concentrated on creating a buffer zone between the plant and the township. The zone has now spread its branches within the township to insulate it from the impact and been successful in creating a microclimate for itself with a blend of aesthetics.
Casuarina, known for its high sustainability in acute and dry climatic conditions was chosen to green the coastal stretch.
A total of 4.72 lakh trees were raised all along the coast to act as an effective natural wall and shield the plant and the inhabitants of the hinterland from cyclonic storms, tidal waves and drifting of sand.
The spirit of the afforestation team never got evaporated all through the arduous journey to success, until they faced the bald hills. The dual problem of barren hills on one side and the 160 hectare of marshy land, which was not worth its salt, appeared insurmountable. But as the saying goes ''victory belongs to those who believe in it the most'', three lakh palmyra trees were raised to afforest 12 hills.
This species was singled out, for its capacity to arrest soil erosion and sprout fresh plants on its own. The desolate hills have been clothed green. The land salinity of yesterday has disappeared under the cover of salvadora plants, as recommended by the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute, Bhavanagar.
The afforestation that made a modest beginning is today a highly developed programme, encompassing all the required professional and scientific nuances under a highly motivated and dedicated team of officers.
The programme that was launched with an annual target of one lakh trees enhanced and surpassed the figure by planting and successfully retaining 35.26 lakh trees within 16 years. Almost 3,226 hectares of land has been given the green cover so far from the earmarked land of 3,600 hectares.
Excellent work never goes unrewarded, and the Centre has conferred the Indira Priyadarshini Vriksha Mitra Award to VSP for its praiseworthy work a couple of years ago.
The vegetation is so thick and green that the entire plant enjoys its benefits. Its tranquillity and scenic beauty not only soothes the steel makers, but attracts cinema producers who are, of late, regularly making a beeline to it for locale shootings. Denizens of the animal kingdom like peacocks, rabbits, reptiles, etc., also find solace here, after being shunted out of their natural habitat elsewhere due to deforestation.
No programme is complete without the active and voluntary participation of the people. To move this drive forward, VSP conducts regular seminars to educate its employees about the efficacy of a healthy environment.
It has taken this programme even to the domestic level, by motivating housewives and children to maintain a kitchen garden by providing them the required inputs.
The awareness programme is continuous, be it with a special seminar or a horticulture show or with a painting and elocution competition among school children.
In a nutshell, the multi-dimensional and multi-directional efforts of VSP, aimed at restoring and conserving ecological balance, have borne fruits.
Their corporate slogan, "Vizag Steel, Pride of Steel", needs to be extended to "Vizag Steel, Pride of Steel and Trees".
S B
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