The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has discovered focus of plantation actions in simply accessible areas like land alongside the pathways, leaving the degraded patches in the midst of dense forest unplanted in Odisha — considered one of causes cited for lacking plantation goal within the State.
The CAG got here down closely on the State authorities indicating that plantation undertaken by within the State didn’t end in enchancment of degraded forest space and enhance in forest cowl to its full potential. Besides, the apex audit company identified that the State didn’t have any knowledge base on degraded land.
Odisha’s forest cowl within the State is assessed as 51,619 sq. km, which is 33.15% of State’s geographical space as per India State of Forest Report 2019.
The efficiency audit of CAG says the shortfall in achievement of plantation targets in the course of the interval 2013-14 to 2017-18 ranged from11.98% to 50.89% beneath numerous forms of plantations. During the interval, the federal government had mounted a plantation goal of 8,80,705 ha of space whereas it managed to hold out plantation solely on 4,32,543 ha areas – shortfall by 50.89%.
“The acute shortfall in achievement of plantation targets during the period indicated fixation of unrealistic targets. Due to non-availability of data regarding degraded forest land and vacant revenue land, the planning procedure for plantations was limited to only instant data provided by field staff on a piece- meal manner,” it mentioned.
“Aerial survey of the plantation sites using unmanned aerial vehicles revealed concentration of plantation activities in easily accessible areas like land along the pathways, leaving the degraded patches in the middle of dense forest unplanted,” the CAG says.
The audit company additional mentioned because the database of degraded forest and non-forest land was not obtainable with the division, goal for compensatory afforestation programmes beneath Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) was not achieved inside the stipulated interval of three years and therefore, couldn’t compensate the forest cowl towards the diversion of forest land.
Stating that the plantation programmes carried out beneath Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Energy Guarantee Scheme remained unfruitful and failed resulting from improper choice of plantation websites in dense forest, the CAG blamed it to lack of coordination on the degree of workplace Divisional Forest Officers (DFOs) and District Rural Development Agencies in planning the plantation initiatives in a division.
Source: www.thehindu.com