The Kuldiha ecological system comes under the former Nilagiri State in Baleswar. The forest block was declared a wild life sanctuary in 1994. The area is spread over 272 sqkm, with the complex extending up to Nilagiri to the north and Kaptipada to the south-east. Similarly, it shares its western boundary with the Mayurbhanj revenue district.
The Nilagiri sub- divisional headquarters town is situated at the foothill of Swarnachuda hillock.
When I joined the forest service in 1957, I got an opportunity to demarcate the forest block. While Kuldiha forms the core area of the sanctuary, its periphery constitutes areas like Sojanagar and Ajodhya. The biological complex is a fringe area of Similipal forests, which is an extension of Nata, Sarat and Sarisua hill forest areas of the region. The major forest species of the forests are Sal, Mahua Sahaj, mango, bamboo, Bahada, Haritak, Alla, Char, Kendu, Dhaura and Sidha etc which are mostly evergreen.
There are several natural water bodies, including channels and holes. The major faunal species of the biosphere are tiger, elephant, Sambar, leopard, Nilgai, giant squirrel wild boar, deer and porcupine etc. Besides, large varieties of birds like hill myna, peacock, hornbill and forest owl and reptiles like land monitor, tortoise, cobra, viper and python etc are found in the forests. Due to repeated human activities, the previous strength of the flora and fauna has decimated to a large extent in the sanctuary these days.
The major trees have been removed and the multi-storey crop composition of the forests no longer exists due to repeated felling by man for personal games. Indiscriminate poaching has also led to dwindling of the animals in the forests.
The dense bamboo forests which were once providing shelter to the herbivores have also reduced. The Swarnachanda hills which are 20 km from Baleswar town and 40-50 km from Chandipur on sea have now fallen victim to regular exploitation of their resources. The north eastern aspect of the hills faces Baleswar town and the Bay of Bengal. The hills bear huge granite stones, which have attracted several quarries around them. When as a forest officer, I was carrying out demarcation of the Swarnchida block, lNG Railway trucks were engaged to lift metals from the area to meet the requirements for construction of railway lines.
However, these days the transportation of metals and chips of granites from these mines has been taking place at a faster rate and a much higher scale. Mining has cast a death blow virtually to the greenery of the region. The crop composition of the area has totally degraded, which has got an adverse impact on the regional climate.
There is no hill or plain forest within Baleswar and Bhadrak districts except this sanctuary. The estuarine forests of Chandipur situated in close proximity of river mouth of Budhabalanga at Balaramgudi are also devastated. The local administration needs to act tough against the quarry mafia and forest smugglers in order to conserve these forests or else they will be totally destroyed soon.
After completion of demarcation of the Swarnachuda forest block, I was given the task of demarcating other forest blocks in Kaptipada which had not been surveyed. I was posted at Salachua, a small tribal village within the dense forests of Sarat section. This was part of a mammoth exercise after merger of States and estates in to Indian union to survey and demarcate forest blocks. There were no regular and systematic working plans or working schemes for proper scientific management of forest resources of any estate forest in India.
Most of the State forests were under the management plans of HF Mooney, who was a legendary personality as well as a forester of British administration.
He was working then as conservator of forests for the undivided region of Bihar and Odisha. Although there was no proper working scheme for management of estate forest resources, but due to the tough administration of the estate rulers, people used to fear to fell trees or kill the wild animals in Kaptipada and Nilagiri areas.
The common people respected the law of the land that they had no right to cause any damage to the forest properties or kill animals.
They believed that forests were synonymous with life and hence it was a sin to destroy the forests where a Vanadevi presided. The forests management of the former Mayurbhaj rulers was quite perfect and the forests were under the working plans. Kaptipada and Nilagiri were the neighbouring estates under the Mayurbhaj State.
Orchids were commonly found in Kuldhia, Noto, Samisha, Sarafa and Salchua forest blocks of the region. The streams were ever flowing while there was no poaching of any animal or bird. If at all there were stray cases of poaching, there was restriction on killing the pregnant female animals and babies. The tigers and elephants had a good presence in the forests.
It is disheartening to see that the former position of the estate forests has got dwindled to a great extent. The same greenery, ever flowing water bodies and moist air inside the forests are a thing of the past. Only the Government and local people could be their saviours.
(The writer is a former senior forest officer and an environmentalist)