17,163 acres forest land diverted in 12 yrs

The Odisha government has diverted 6,945.48 hectares (ha) or 17,162.65 acres of forest land for industries and development work related to energy, irrigation, railway and road in the past 12 years.

This was stated by Bijayshree Routray, minister for forest and environment in the state assembly. Industry's share of total forest land diverted is 1,786.67 ha. This has been done to favour 12 industries which have deposited Rs 13.42 crore towards compensatory afforestation and penal compensatory afforestation. Against this diversion of forest land, 365.83 ha has been covered under compensatory afforestation. Among the development projects, maximum forest land has been diverted for irrigation at 4,097.04 ha. This has been done to facilitate 38 irrigation projects with Rs 16.07 crore deposited towards compensatory afforestation. An area of 3,807.14 ha has been taken up under compensatory afforestation for forest land diverted for irrigation projects.

For 17 road projects, the state government has diverted 73.23 ha while for railway and transmission projects, 69.99 ha and 838.16 ha have been diverted. The minister informed that Odisha has so far received Rs 447.32 crore from the Centre in four tranches under Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA).