Andhra Pradesh is building a massive green wall of trees across its entire coastline to permanently stop sea erosion and deadly cyclone storms

The Andhra Pradesh Forest Department, working alongside local voluntary groups for the past two years, has planted dense belts of casuarina (sarugudu), palmyra palm (taati), babool (tumma), and mangroves along the seashore in Prakasam district across Ulavapadu, Kothapatnam, and Tanguturu mandals. Casuarina trees have become a natural cure for severe coastal erosion, with extensive plantations in Kothapatnam turning the beachfront into a thick green carpet. These trees act as a living natural shield, using their deep root networks to tightly anchor loose sand dunes and soil so that high-speed gale winds and pounding ocean waves cannot wash them away.
This local green belt is part of the state's ambitious Great Green Wall project, led by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan. Inspired by Africa’s green wall, the initiative creates a continuous bio-shield running across the state's entire 974-kilometre mainland coastline-stretching over 1,053 kilometres including creeks-from Srikakulam down to Tirupati. The protective corridor extends up to five kilometres inland, providing direct defense for more than 33 lakh (3.3 million) people living in 282 high-risk coastal villages where roughly 32 percent of the shoreline is actively eroding into the sea.
The green wall is designed in three strategic layers to handle storms: outer seaward mangroves and casuarina that cut wave power by up to 60 percent, a middle buffer of bamboo and sand-binding plants along coastal roads and the Buckingham Canal, and an inner zone of fruit trees to support livelihoods for local fishermen and women’s self-help groups. Funded by combining rural employment funds (MGNREGS), CAMPA forest reserves, and global climate grants, this nature-based wall replaces expensive concrete barriers and serves as the core foundation for Andhra Pradesh's mission to expand its overall green cover from 30 percent to 50 percent by 2047.