Bhavnagar institute replants over 7,000 Jatropha uprooted by Phailin in Orissa

A pioneer in bio-fuel research,CSMCRI,owns about 15 hectares of plantations at Gopalpur and Mahuda areas in Orissa.

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Bhavnagar-based Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI) has successfully completed a rare replantation drive at its Jatropha plantation in Orissa,where the institute managed to save over 7,000 Jatropha plants that were uprooted when Cyclone Phailin lashed the state.

A pioneer in bio-fuel research,CSMCRI,owns about 15 hectares of plantations at Gopalpur and Mahuda areas in Orissa. Most of the plantations in Gopalpur were uprooted by the cyclone. These plantations were almost 10 years old,and for a while we felt that all our hard work,done over these years,in cultivating Jatropha for bio-diesel research has come undone, said P K Ghosh,director of CSMCRI,which has been supplying 12,000 litres of bio-diesel to the Gujarat government to run buses in Gir sanctuary annually,for the past three years,and is also planning to supply 1,000 litres to Indian Railways every month for the proposed trial runs of bio-diesel-powered locomotives to be undertaken in Rajkot.

Elaborating on the aim of the plantation drive,Ghosh said,We could not,however,afford to lose them. So we undertook a massive drive,in which we replanted the uprooted plants a few days after the cyclone. It took us about eight days and 75 people to complete this task. That was when it was very difficult to get the necessary manpower as everyone was busy rebuilding homes.

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Ghosh was here at Gujarat Science City to speak at a symposium organised by the German House for Research and Innovation-DWIH New Delhi on Saturday.

The Jatropha plants,growing in these plantations,were as tall as 7-8 feet. They were a major source of seeds,from which CSMCRI derives bio-diesel for its research projects. CSMCRI currently owns over 55 hectares of Jatropha plantations in Gujarat,Orissa and Maharashtra. The institute sources over 10 tonnes of Jatropa seeds every year from these plantations.

This is the second big calamity to affect the Jatropha plantations in Orissa. In 2008,the plantations survived two consecutive years of drought. The drought showed us that Jatropha can survive severe droughts, Ghosh added.

In the coming years,CSMCRI will also be undertaking new plantations in saline-affected areas,where it will be planting the genetically modified salt-tolerant variety of Jatropha. This variety is currently undergoing field-trials.

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