Under the Green Mahanadi Mission (GMM), the State Government so far released over Rs 168.30 crore. The Mission was launched during 2018-19 with an aim to create a green belt in 1 km width on both sides of the river Mahanadi, Tel and IB on all available and suitable forest land, revenue forest land, District Level Committee (DLC) area and private land through massive participation of peoples’ representatives and all stakeholders.
Preparatory activities of the Mission like identification of villages, selection of plantation sites, nursery sites, identification of Mahanadi Sevaks and mass motivation were taken up during 2017-18 in 16 districts covering 1,303 villages under the jurisdiction of 20 forest and wildlife divisions.
The scheme is being implemented with the funding sources under the State Plan. The scheme has been approved in the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) meeting from 2018-19 to 2022-23 and their maintenance up to 2025-26, sources said.
The scheme was implemented during the Phase II in 2019-20 with inclusion of four more rivers namely Brahmani, Baitarani, Rushikulya and Vanshadhara and left-over area of Mahanadi, Tel and IB at a total budget provision of Rs 51 crore.
During this year, plantations over a total area of 1,035 hectares AR, 75 hectares casuarina, 203 hectares bald hill, 4,203 hectares ANR with gap, 171 hectares bamboo, 116 RKM avenue with planting of 33.94 seedlings including 2.31 lakh seedlings under Urban Tree Plantation and distribution of 49.76 lakh seedlings were successfully achieved along with maintenance of previous year’s plantations of 5,299.55 hectares of different components under the mission.
In 2022-23, 576 hectares of AR, 424 hectares of bald hill, 3,000 hectares of ANR plantation, 2.89 lakh saplings under urban tree plantation were taken up and 5.48 lakh seedlings were distributed with a cost of Rs 26.82 crore.
GMM committees have been constituted at the block, district and State levels for monitoring and reviewing the activities undertaken by different line departments.