Bhubaneswar, January 17: The State-level Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) headed by Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra has approved annual action plan of 2021-22 with a total outlay of around Rs 903.39 crore.
A meeting of the CAMPA was held recently at the Lokseva Bhawan wherein CAMPA CEO Uma Nanduri outlined the issues for discussion. It was also known in the meeting that the India State Forest Report of 2019 has projected Odisha as a “Lead State” in different parameters of afforestation and forest management through application of technology.
State’s initiative for DGPS survey of the entire forest land of 60,991 kms with latest techniques has proved to be very useful in monitoring of forest area, wild life and maintenance of different assets. The method has been accepted as a best practice at national level.
The major activities under the annual action plan of 2021-22 included block plantation, assisted natural regeneration, bald hill plantation, regeneration of bamboo forest, maintenance of previous year plantation, fodder & fruit bearing plantation, bamboo culture, wild life management, infrastructure development, capacity building research and evaluation.
Target was set to take up plantation in 40,494 and bamboo culture over 75000 hectors. The soil and moisture conservation works would be taken up over 7,000 hects. The old road side plantation over 1,54,865 hect would be maintained. Intensive plantation would be taken up over 551 hect of bald hill. Assisted natural regeneration activities would be undertaken over 2790 hects. Around 70 culverts and 100 causeways would be built in the forest area and 150 tube wells would be dug in the remote villages inside the forest. The issue of forest fire protection figured in the meeting. It was decided to make required investment for maintenance of fire protection line, operation of 216 fire protection squads and support to VSS for fire protection works.
CEO Nanduri said, “As of now total area of 56,958.73 hect of forest area have been diverted for different public and developmental purposes in Odisha. Against this, afforstation has been done in 67,828 hect”. The meeting set the target for plantation over 3,603.03 hect during the period of APO 2021-22.”
Reviewing the progress made so far, the Chief Secretary directed to increase green coverage on bald hills through plantation and regeneration activities during the year 2021-22. He also directed to create digital data base of all the forest assets and upload those on public domain with regular updating.
Development Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Jena, Additional Chief Secretary Forest & Environment Dr Mona Sharma, Principal Secretary Finance Ashok Kumar Meena, PCCF Sandeep Tripathy along with other senior officers of the concerned departments participated in the deliberations.
