Odisha’s green zones are apparently in the red. Not only are the forests, even the high-pitch plantation drive by State looks to be in the sinking mode. During the last two years, Odisha was seen losing a whopping over 13sqkm of tree cover every month.
Moreover, in the greenery drive the State has achieved a zero sum gain as during the last two years while on one hand it has added 247sqkm green vegetation, on the other it lost an equal amount (247sqkm) of green cover. The result is per capita forest and tree cover in Odisha was down to 0.13 hectares (ha) in 2015 vis-a-vis 0.14 ha in 2013.
What this reveals is despite population of Odisha growing slowly, the dwindling of forests was so faster and sharper that the needle of balance tilted to negative zone, which is a concern for the State when post El Nino year Odisha is apparently turning ‘heat island’ of India this summer.
This startling revelation came to the fore in the 2015 India State of Forest Report (ISFR) released by Forest Survey of India every alternate year. From over 4,301sqkm tree cover outside forests in 2013, it has shrunk to 3,986sqkm in 2015. This reveals how State’s much-acclaimed ‘plantation’ drive in due course has turned out a mere propagandist exercise as tree cover outside forest area shrinks during 2013-15. Moreover, Odisha also lost over 19sqkm of very dense forest area, a whopping 146sqkm of open forest area and around 82sqkm of non-forest area during the same time-period. The saving grace, however, is in turn it added hectares to moderately dense forest and scrub area during the period. The ISFR, however, attributed the rise to better conservation in mangrove areas only.
How the Eastern Ghats, considered ecological reservoir of peninsular India, was in distress is evident when forest balance here has recorded a zero sum gain during 2013-15. When a high of nine districts dotting the Eastern Ghats map lost around 35sqkm of forest cover, the State could add only an equivalent area in remaining three districts under the Eastern Ghats.
In contrast, neighbouring Andhra Pradesh added a whopping 81sqkm forest area in its districts featuring in the Eastern Ghats map vis-a-vis loss of mere 15sqkm during 2013-15. The net gain for Eastern Ghats there stood at a whopping 66sqkm.
Odisha also has the ignominy of being the third biggest loser in the country in very dense forest area during 2013-15 after Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
Significantly, green shades giving way to brown patches was more evident in Odisha when data with State Government shows how in 2013-14 a whopping 745 ha forest area were diverted for mining. The result: Keonjhar recorded erosion in forest area during 2013-15. Western Odisha districts that have turned ‘blast furnace’ this April have recorded loss of around 12sqkm forest area during 2013-15.