Despite a difficult situation arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic, the State’s forest cover has significantly improved during the last two years.

Informing this at a two-day conference of Divisional Forest Officers (DFOs) beginning here from Thursday, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said Odisha  has added the highest number of mangrove forests in the country and it is the third highest in terms of total increase of forest cover between 2019 and 2021.

“This has been possible due to constant support of people, Vana Surakha Samiti (VSS) members and tireless efforts of forest staffs in the field,” he said.

He asked forest officers to prepare a concrete roadmap to improve the forest health and enhance the living standards of forest-fringe villagers.

Patnaik said afforestation is a key component for providing employment to people in forest-fringe villages. He advised the officials to rope in Women Self Help Groups (SHGs) for raising seedlings for the Forest Department. He also urged officials to carry out plantation drives under the 5T initiative as this would bring transparency and timeliness and encourage team work among all stakeholders.

“Many of our forestry programmes such as Joint Forest Management and Odisha Forestry Sector Development Project have been successful in providing livelihoods and empowering local communities,” he said.

Speaking on various issues, including human-elephant conflict, wildlife trafficking and forest fires, Patnaik stressed on the need of an integrated plan with a focused approach for significant reduction in such cases.

Forest and Environment Minister Bikram Keshari Arukha outlined the initiatives and stated that the department has successfully reduced incidents of forest fires by 50% this year as compared to the previous year.

Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra said that besides usual functions for forest conservation and wildlife protection, the department now has a larger role to facilitate projects that provide livelihood support for people living in forest areas.