BHUBANESWAR: Officials said on Wednesday that the Odisha government has identified 26,500 acres of degraded revenue forest land in 18 districts for compensatory afforestation work.
Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue, Satyabrata Sahu said the government has developed a land bank for compensatory afforestation while attending a meeting convened by Chief Secretary S.C. Mahapatra to resolve forest diversion issues.
In the districts of Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Bolangir, Jajpur, Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Sambalpur, Angul, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Jharsuguda, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Subarnapur, and Nayagarh, around 26,500 acres of degraded revenue forest land were found. In the month of January, Keonjhar selected 10,800 acres of land for the land bank, he added.
Officials say that the development project's executing agency will have to contact the district's Additional District Magistrate, Revenue, for land demarcation for compensatory afforestation from the land bank.
The meeting handled old forest diversion issues in the housing areas of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and the Odisha State Housing Board (OSHB), where people have been living for nearly four decades.
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