Bhubaneswar, March 21: The state government is taking steps not only to strengthen security in and around forests, but also to reclaim the degraded patches through re-plantation drives.
A move is also afoot to contain the damage caused to the sylvan wealth by forest fires. Besides, the state government's Green Odisha Mission seeks to increase forest cover.
Addressing a gathering here today to mark the World Forestry Day, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said the mission had been launched in 2013-14 subsuming all afforestation schemes with a target of planting 44.52 crore seedlings between 2013 and 2017.
However, the state government was thinking of extending it further from 2017-18 to 2021-22.
Forest and environment minister Bikram Keshari Arukh, on the other hand, told the Assembly that during 2017-18, the state government proposed to revive 5,19,475.24 hectares of degraded forests while also undertaking roadside plantation in various areas where 761.38 lakh saplings would be planted.
The minister informed that while security was being tightened in vulnerable forest areas such as Keonjhar, Angul, Sundargarh, Puri, Parlakhemundi and Rayagada, where timber theft cases had been reported in the past, 199 forest check gates were also being set up to prevent the smuggling of forest wealth.
While more than 12,000 forest protection committees have been formed across the state, the eco-development committees are also being constituted and encou4raged. With a view to beefing up forest security, 880 walkie-talkies have been provided to 590 very high frequency stations set up for the purpose.
Arukh said the state, having sustained damage to more than 3,000 hectares of forestland because of fires in the past three years, was initiating special measures to check such incidents. While a standard operating procedure was being developed to control such fires, a strategy was also being worked out to pass information about such incidents quickly to the concerned authorities using the satellite technology.
Forest fires have been taking a toll on forests in the tribal-dominated districts of the state such as Koraput, Malkangiri and Rayagada, where the practice of shifting cultivation, locally known as podu, has also turned into a curse as it destroys forest cover on the hill slopes.
Sources attributed the popularity of podu in the tribal belt to the fact that it was easy and less expensive compared to the traditional farming methods. It involves clearing of vegetation on the hill slopes by setting it on fire before the farmers till the land. "But, this destroys the fertility of the land for a long time. This practice should be stopped," said a government official, who did not wish to be named.
