Bhubaneswar: In yet another major achievement, the forest cover in Odisha recorded an increase by 537 square kilometers. As per the India State Forest Report brought out by Forest Survey of India during 2021, Odisha has 52,156 square Kilometer of forest coverage which is 33.50% of its geographical area as compared to 21.71 percent of forest cover at the National Level.
Speaking on the demand discussion of the Forest, Environment and Climate Change Department today, Minister Pradip Kumar Amat said that Rs.1040.50 crore has been utilized under various schemes of Program Expenditure including CAMPA during FY 2021-22. Apart from afforestation, the Department has taken many other initiatives such as the Mahanadi Ratha Yatra, Pada Yatra and massive campaign among the people for conservation of Forest and Water.
During 2021-22, the state achieved AR plantation over 11,225.30 ha, ANR (with planting in gaps) over 99, 143 ha with a total achievement of 1, 10,368.30 ha under afforestation. Further, there is an achievement of 4,616.60 RKM of Avenue Plantation. Against these afforestation activities, 3.83 Crore seedlings have been planted and an additional 2.30 Crore seedlings have been distributed.
With the help of 16090 Van Surakshya Samiti members, around 13761 Sq.Km forest area is being protected. Approximately 19.24 lakh families have been included and forest produce are shared amongst them. Also, 591 Environment Development Committee (EDC) have also been constituted. VSS members are associated with National Afforestation Programme, Green India Mission, Odisha Forestry Sector Development Project and Ama Jungle Yojana for protection of the Forest.
A total of 26582 cases of Forest Fire incidences were successfully attended during last summer. The Department has deployed 213 Fire Fighting Squads in 37 Forest Divisions and 19500 KM of Fire lines were created and maintained. Also, 2270 numbers of local unemployed youth were engaged for fire protection duty.
Under 5T Initiatives 3rd party Evaluation of functioning of VSS has been implemented by utilizing Agricultural Finance Corporation Limited, Mumbai, which is transformational. Digital Monitoring of Forestry Activities and Online Odisha Timber Transit Permit System have also been implemented.
During this period, about 1193.94 hectares of Forest Land was diverted for non-forest use U/s. 2 of FC Act, 1980. Also, 12 number of Range Offices, 70 culverts and 100 Causeways were constructed during this period. Besides, 12 RO Quarters, 56 Foresters quarters and 194 Forest Guard quarters were also constructed.
Besides the above achievements, the FE&CC Department is committed to achieve in the current Financial Year 2022-23, a target of afforestation of 1,16,307 hectares, out of which 61,949 hectares will be under the CAMPA fund, 4,122 hectares will be under Increasing Green Cover, 4000 hectares will be under Green Mahanadi Mission, 1,125 hectares will be under Odisha Forestry Sector Development Project, 2,807 hectares will be under Green India Mission and 40,000 hectares will be under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). About 4.85 Crore seedlings will be planted & 4.90 seedlings will be distributed under different afforestation schemes during 2022-23.
“ANUKAMPA” a User-friendly software of State Wildlife Organization, Department of Forest, Environment & Climate Change, Government of Odisha, has been developed in association with Odisha Space Application Centre (ORSAC), Bhubaneswar, to facilitate Compassionate Payment to the victims due to Human-Wildlife Conflict in an expeditious, transparent and hassle free manner as per DBT policy under “MO Sarkar” and 5T transformational action point. It has been implemented w.e.f 01.06.2021. The ANUKAMPA portal has been integrated with iFMS for online payment of compassionate grant to the victims. A total of 26927 claims have been settled.
In the iWLMS, with the help of ORSAC, automated message Early Warning System has been introduced. On uploading of elephant presence in a Beat area, automatically messages are triggered in 05 Kms of buffer area of the Beat to the registered mobile phone numbers to alert the people of that area to prevent damage to human life and property.
Mass nesting of Olive Ridley Sea Turtles took place at Gahirmatha and Rushikulya rookeries during March, 2022. In Gahirmatha 5.01 lakh and in Rushikulya 5.50 lakh Olive Ridley sea turtles emerged to lay eggs. This is the highest ever congregation of turtles recorded in Rushikulya rookery.
Giving a thrust to the tourism sector in the state, 70,216 visitors visited the different Nature Camps during 2021-22 as compared to 56,962 during 2020-21. Income generated during 2021-22 is Rs.10.51crores as against Rs.8.32 crore during 2020-21. Usufruct benefit to the tune of Rs.2.62 crore was shared among 632 ETG/EDC members during 2021-22 as against Rs.2.05 crore shared among 600 ETG/EDC members during 2020-21. Thus, there is significant increase in footfall of Eco-tourists, income generated and direct benefit to the livelihood of Local Community under Ecotourism. To demonstrate aesthetical recycle of waste materials, Waste Management Garden has been created in State Botanical Garden, Nandankanan. Waste tyres, glass bottles and plastic containers have been used to plant saplings to demonstrate waste management. In addition to this, a Vertical Garden for demonstration purpose has also been added in State Botanical Garden. It is aimed at creating awareness and educating the visitors.
Kendu leaf continues to be the most important forest produce in Odisha. It provides livelihood support annually to about 10 lakh rural masses, generating around 80-90 lakh man-days, of which over 80% are women folk engaged primarily as KL pluckers. Kendu Leaf working in the State is self-sustaining wherein OFDC Ltd provides entire Working Fund Advance (WFA) ranging from about Rs 300 crores to over Rs 400 crores annually depending on the production. It takes delivery of the leaves and sells. The State does not take any revenue or royalty out of this trade and the net sale value realized is ploughed back for welfare measures of around 8.00 lakh beneficiaries namely pluckers, binders and the seasonal staff. The measures include bonus/ incentive, compassionate grant to eligible stakeholders besides support such as chappal allowance to pluckers; blanket & mosquito net allowance to binders; cap allowance to pluckers/ seasonal staff and cycle allowance to eligible seasonal staff etc. On an average, around Rs 100 crore plus are yearly spent for these measures as decided by Kendu Leaf Development Board under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister.
During the year, Rs.1711.45 lakh has been received from OFDC towards Royalty on Timbers by working 82 numbers of Timber coupes during 2021-22. In the same period, 4928.62 sale unit of Industrial Bamboo and 227164 numbers of commercial Bamboos have been procured from 32 numbers of Bamboo Coupes worked out during 2021-22.
